The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia
by Charon the Sabercat
Summary: They had all awoken in this strange village, this throwback to the 100 Year War, with a feeling. Professor Layton and Luke with pounding heads and a drive to crack open the dark secrets of this place. Phoenix Wright and Maya with work to do and a terrifying suspicion that they weren't long for this world... (PLvsAA set in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe)
1. Republic City: Nighttime

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very weird crossover. I just hope you have fun.

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Carmine had called them. That was incredible on its own, as Carmine always preferred writing. He had called them, giving them his address first and a summary of the situation after, and told them throughout to hurry, come quickly, even in the dark of night they had to meet him in Republic City and they had to do so soon. It was a matter of the safety of the city, of perhaps the nation, and of one little girl in particular.

Layton collected Luke and the overnight bags and hurried to the Laytonmobile. The drive from his office to Republic City was a long one, but not particularly tiring even considering the time of night. Luke had gotten the same amount of information he had, which was nearly none, and with the time to spare he had a quick nap in the passenger seat while Layton drove in silent contemplation. He spent the drive flanked by the common spirits that liked to fly beside cars on the highway. He was more than used to the sight. As the Laytonmobile rolled into Republic City however, they peeled away and disappeared into the night sky as if spooked by something unseen, a sight that gave him a bit of pause. It wasn't like spirits to run away from potential fun. Something must have been wrong in the air.

The sun had just been setting when they left and it was well into nighttime when they arrived at the address Carmine had provided. Before he could even knock, the door opened, and Layton and Luke were roughly grabbed and pulled inside.

"Professor! Thank the spirits-" Carmine bolted the door behind them. "I apologize but time is of the essence. You were not followed, were you?"

"Er- no, I don't believe we were." Layton adjusted his hat and coat to shake off the nervous flutter the words caused him. Luke carefully tucked himself behind the professor's arm. "Is that going to be a concern?"

"Yes." Carmine Accidente took a long drink from his hip flask. Luke gave the detective a funny look, but Layton assured the boy with a pat to the shoulder. Carmine was a good soul, an ex-student of his that had gone into criminal justice and become a detective at the Bei Fong Metalbending Academy. Cases had not been entirely kind to him, and he had grown a bit of a paranoid streak that showed itself in refusing to drink from anything but his personal flask of water and a habit of locking doors behind him, even in casual company. Layton was prepared to explain to Luke quietly, when they had a peaceful moment, but the peace would have to wait.

Carmine took the two of them by the shoulder and turned them around, leading them out of the foyer and into the living room of the little house. The place was sparse; little furniture and none of it with any kind of character. The only thing of note in the space was a massive fireplace of old bent stone, obviously hand-hewn by skilled earthbenders long ago, and it wasn't even lit.

No, the only thing in the room to really notice, framed by the great mouth of the fireplace, was the young lady huddled in the middle of the settee. She seemed utterly exhausted and determined to stay awake from willpower, taking pained but long breaths and holding her arms close to herself, legs pressed tight together, and head ducked down into her shoulders.

"Look, Professor," Luke whispered up to Layton's ear. "She's wearing Earth Kingdom clothes."

"Indeed, Luke," the professor whispered back. The robes, even from a distance and in low light, were well-woven and sumptuously dyed in greens and yellows, even if the whites were slightly dulled with dirt and age. "A strange choice of attire, indeed, considering the 'Earth Kingdom' hasn't existed for roughly 100 years."

"Try not to bring that up to her," Carmine whispered between the two of them. Even now, she had turned her head up to watch them, eyes wide and wet in the dark. Blue eyes, and that odd yellow hair that only sprung up after the Harmonic Convergence. It wasn't terribly uncommon- even Carmine himself was born with it- but still a young enough phenomenon to be considered rare and unusual. Seeing a golden-haired teen in the clothes better fitting the 100 Years War gave Layton pause. It was too well made to be a costume, too worn around the shoulders, and her bottom-less shoes were scuffed and frayed along the edges. These were her clothes.

Carmine spoke aloud. "Espella. This is my good friend, Professor Layton. He's the man I told you about. He can help us, and your village." Her eyes darted to Luke, the fear building in a taut line against her back. "A-and this is-"

"Luke Triton," he spoke up. "The professor's number one apprentice!"

She smiled a little. "Yes. Thank you."

"Wow, that's a relief..." Luke muttered quietly. "Usually people give me funny looks when I say that..."

"Which would mean she's familiar with the concept..." Layton mused. Carmine hovered behind the professor, eyes constantly moving between the door and window and finally to them. "Carmine, may I approach her?"

"It should be fine." Carmine kept watch. "Just don't mention anything other than what I talked about over the phone."

Already feeling constrained, Layton pulled his hat snug against his head and met the young lady at the settee. He knelt down to meet her eye level, settling on his good leg and speaking in a quiet tone he reserved for young children in distress. "Miss Espella. I understand you are a long way from home."

"Yes..." She nodded as little as she could manage. There was a little jump to her shoulders when Luke settled beside the professor, but she restrained her nervous shaking and swallowed hard enough to speak again. "Yes I am. The good Sir Carmine brought me here, from Labyrinthia."

"That is your home?"

"My village, yes."

It wasn't rare for people to come from "villages", even now, but they were tucked far in the more rural parts of the Earth States. Layton felt his chest reflexively tighten at the thought, but put it aside for now. "You seem to be in distress. Do you fear for your safety?"

She nodded.

"For what reason?"

She swallowed again. "I think the firebenders are after me."

Luke gasped and held tight to Layton's arm, and the professor's chest immediately seized up with a strangled noise from his throat. Carmine, ever watchful at the window, lowered his eyes.

He had to press on. He pulled a little further at the statement. "The firebenders, you say?"

"Yes... if they knew the location of my village, they would..." She winced and shook away the thought as if it caused her pain. "But I can keep them at bay, for now, for I have The Story."

"The Story?"

Espella reached into the folds of her robe, pulling something out from inside. It was thick and dark and weighty- a book, by the look of it, almost a tome. Leather-bound and green as jade, bookmarked with a simple slip of torn parchment. "Everything you need to know is in here. Everything is in The Story, everything that was and everything that will be... and as long as I have it, it cannot continue. Please, take it. Read."

Feeling rather intimidated, Layton took the book and rose to his feet. He kept the tome low, so Luke could read with him, and cracked the pages open with a careful hand. The script was lovely, the careful calligraphy of a practiced hand and all evenly lined and obviously written with a hand-dipped feather quill pen. Well, obvious to his trained eye, at least. The inner columns, the paragraphs of fiction and vague mentions of events, were framed by casual and carefree characters he recognized as the Old Script of Avatar Aang's time. With some time, he could comb through his memory and read these passages, certainly, but at the moment he had pressing questions.

For instance, what was this strange smell that had taken his nose and settled unpalatably at the back of his mouth? And why was the text dancing on the page, and the book bathing the room in blue light? Luke made a startled noise and shook his head, wiping at his eyes.

"Professor!" he cried, "The words were moving! Did you see that?"

"Carmine..." Layton spoke quietly still, almost cacophonous in the silence of the house. "May I speak to you in private? There are some questions-"

"I cannot afford to leave her side for an instant," Carmine interrupted. "I will tell you what I know. This town of Labyrinthia is a place thick with conspiracy, ones that I believe can be solved with Espella's help, but I cannot continue on my own. At our first opportunity, we must venture back to that terrible place and-"

The words dropped from Carmine's mouth with a sharp shout. Following his line of sight, Layton's eyes looked through a far door, into an unlit room, where a black shape was rising up from the floor and glaring upon them with yellow, glowing eyes. Espella whipped around and shrieked in terror, clutching the book to her chest and plowing into Professor Layton.

Carmine screamed, "We have been discovered!" and attacked the black shape with a snap of his metal whip. The instrument streamed through the air right past Layton's ear, and with a quick correction of his balance Layton had Espella's arm hooked through his and Luke caught up under his elbow. He ran back through the foyer entrance, stopping as soon as they were out of the line of fire while Carmine metalbent cable after cable into the unrelenting black mass. "Layton, run! Take the children and run for your-"

With a sickening snikt, Carmine's cables came alight in orange fire and swept up his arms. Blinded by the sudden explosion and deafened by screaming in each ear, Layton pulled the two of them to the door. The deadbolt opened, his arms opening it independent of thought in his panic, and he slammed his full weight into door to throw all of them out into the cold night air.

More black shapes filled the streets, pulling up from the cobblestones and out of the side alleys in every direction. Barely back on their feet, the three of them were thrown to the ground by the building behind them exploding in a hail of bricks and mortar. Luke caught his footing first and pulled, and once Layton had his stance again he picked a direction- two masses who were further apart from each other from the rest- and rushed between them, Luke and Espella trailing behind.

A glance over his shoulder, and he saw it. A massive figure rising from the dark, shrouded in layers of fire. It stood higher than the buildings, its head framed in a halo of red, columns of flame wicking up from its extended hands. With a wave of its fingers, the other dark shapes burst into flames and chased after them, twice as fast as before, cars and lamp posts shooting out of their way.

"The Fire Lord!" Espella screamed in terror. "They've found us! It's all over!"

They were on a low bridge, one Layton had driven over on the way without thought, a canal that had been made out of one of the furrows in the earth left by The Great Uniter. He had barely noticed, only shocking back into awareness when a boat below blew its siren as a warning.

"I am very sorry, Espella!"

"What-?!"

With that, he hoisted one arm under her legs and tossed her over the railing, where she dropped and landed onto a soft cloth canopy with a light "thump." The last he saw was the green of her cloak whipping over the canopy and onto the deck, running for cover before the flaming figures overtook him and Luke with one final flash of white fire.


	2. Republic City: Nighttime 2

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in his weird little crossover, but it is VERY condensed for an easier read. You're not here to read every little minutia of the original game, that's what Youtube is for.

* * *

"I'm back from the buffet!" Maya sidled into the room, hands full of food hastily wrapped in napkins. She slid the little room's door shut with her foot and settled her ill-gotten gains down on the foot of Nick's bed. "You're lucky I'm on your side, Nick. I had to beat the shuffleboarders off your midnight snack with their own shuffleboard stick thingies."

"Haha, very funny." Nick rolled himself into a sitting position and took a pasty from the pile. It wasn't too bad of a situation, all things considered. If the Fire Nation wanted to send him on a business trip, then sure, he was happy to do the paperwork and go somewhere. The seminars upon seminars, though, and the fact they wouldn't let them off the "cruise ship"- _it was a damn boat and nothing more glamorous than that_ \- to rest was starting to get to him. Even now he was tired, still dressed in his suit, and unwilling to spend any more time with Fire Nation prosecutors than he had to. He happily sequestered himself in his too-small room, with its bathroom that was only big enough to sit down in and its no windows and its two beds that were uncomfortably close to each other, and waited for it all to be over.

Maya, meawhile, was more than happy to steal him food from the midnight buffet, and even now she was unloading her own pilfered sandwiches from her sleeves. "OO, I caught up on the rumor mill, too!" she told him through a mouthful of lettuce wrap. "Remember that crash we heard from upstairs? That was a person who jumped off of a bridge!"

 _Oh wow,_ Phoenix thought to himself, _she's bold enough to come right out and say that, isn't she?_ "Come on! Don't be insensitive."

"I'm not!" Maya countered. "That's what I heard! Some people were even saying it was somebody who got thrown off the bridge!"

Nick had to laugh at that. "Come on, who throws someone off a bridge and onto a boat? It's like they're begging to get caught. Eyewitnesses, the police, the victim would survive-"

"People are sayin' they saw somebody running around the ship looking lost!" Maya finished off her little sandwich fast. "I say we go look for 'em! Maybe as a reward for finding the truth, they'll let us off at the next port and we can actually go be tourists for a few days."

What a tempting offer. _Anything to get off this boat..._ "Okay now you're just-"

Through their thin floor, which they vaguely knew sat above a storage area, they heard a sharp scream and the solid thump of a body hitting the floor.

Phoenix was on his feet at once, food hitting the floor from the force of his displaced blanket, and Maya was hot on his heels. As they ran, people followed behind them, prosecutors and defense attorneys and their guests and staff and all. The closer they got, marked by a descent down a flight of stairs, the less confused the chatter became, and it morphed from "What is it? What happened?" to "They got her!"

Turning a corner found them at a doorway being filled by a security guarded, grappling a green-cloaked woman out of the area.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She cried. "I don't know what happened!"

"Everyone please leave!" The guard shined his flashlight directly into the crowd's eyes. "Johnny Smiles, coming through with the perp!"

"The perp?!" Phoenix shoved to the front of the line. "What happened?"

"This woman-" The guard pulled the woman upright, even as she cowered from the crowd in terror. "Was found in the storage bay, rifling through luggage and bashing in a crew member's head! She's getting taken to the brig!"

"I'll do you one better!" A prosecutor- and Phoenix could tell right away that he was a prosecutor- stepped out of the crowd. "Let's get this ruffian convicted and have her arrested as soon as we make landfall."

 _He can't be seriously saying that!_ Phoenix thought in horror. The crowd muttered behind him, to his disgust, in agreement. "What! You can't do that, it goes against due process!"

"I don't see why it doesn't!" The prosecutor adjusted his tie. "I am a prosecutor, we have a judge aboard the premises-"

A deep voice coughed from behind him. "Here, here."

"A victim, a perpetrator-"

"I-I'm not a traitor!" the woman in green shouted. "I'm not! I swear, I didn't hurt her!"

"The only thing we lack is a defense attorney-" The prosecutor sniffed haughtily. "Oh. I suppose we do have a defense attorney."

The eyes of the crowd settled on him in unison. _Wait, does he mean me?_ Phoenix thought.

"Nick, does he mean you?" Maya whispered.

"Wait, do you mean me?" Phoenix cried.

The haughty one snuffled a laugh through his nose, constantly stroking his little tie as if it were a cherished pet. "Well," the prosecutor said with an air of smarm. "You do seem to be the only one standing up for the rights of this obvious criminal-"

"Now hang on!" Phoenix snapped right back, pointing in the prosecutor's smug face. "She is innocent until proven guilty!"

"She was caught red-handed!" The prosecutor insisted. "Wasn't she, guard?"

A deep voice harrumphed from the crowd, and a portly man in a house robe came to the front of the crowd. In his hand was a gavel, and like a stone dropping into his stomach, Phoenix realized that this was about to turn official. "Now now, let's make this official first."

 _And there I am,_ Phoenix thought. _Being right at exactly the wrong time._

"This... very impromptu trial shall now come to order!" The Judge, lacking anything better to use, whacked his gavel against his palm and instantly regretted it. "Ouch! Someone, please bring me something to whack!"

Already at his side, Maya was starting to smirk. "He's looking at you, Nick," Maya whispered.

"No he isn't, Maya," Nick hushed her. _As if I don't have enough to worry about right now. Just been roped into a trial after cabin fever and business... and I didn't even get to finish my bagel._

"I can hear you mentally whining!" Maya whispered again. "Focus!"

"The prosecution-" said the prosecutor. "One Mr. Flynch, is ready, Your Honor."

The crowd's attention focused on him again, and Phoenix shyly rubbed at his neck. This was it, then. He was really doing this. "I- um- The defense is ready, Your Honor. I guess. Phoenix Wright, ready to go."

The Judge tapped his gavel at a tip book held out by a helpful waiter. "Let us hear the guard's testimony. Tell us what happened here tonight."

The security guard immediately posed himself for the crowd, to a murmur of impressed "oo"s and "ah"s. The young lady seemed quite forgotten about in the ensuing attention; Phoenix gently put a hand on her shoulder and, clearly overwhelmed, she just sat directly down at his feet. Maya switched sides to put her hands on the lady's shoulders and stand over her protectively, and Phoenix was struck by the fact that they looked about the same age, and Maya was only seventeen.

"Yes sir! I was on patrol, doing my rounds to keep the ship ship-safe, when I heard a noise coming from the cargo hold!" He flashed his eyes out from under his sunglasses with a fast flourish. "Johnny Smiles caught her in the act! Johnny Smiles ran into that dark room, and saw the victim on the ground, with the criminal standing above her-"

"In the dark?" Phoenix countered.

"Uh- well, Johnny Smiles held his flashlight aloft!" He did so, to demonstrate. "And saw the victim on the ground, with the criminal standing above her-"

"Doing what?" he interrupted. "Exactly?"

"Standing!" 'Johnny Smiles' ducked back against the door jam, cowering with his hands bunched into his shirt. "Kind of like this, against the wall, with her hands all crunched up like this-"

"Like this?" Phoenix said, copying the motion. "To herself? Not touching anything? Including the victim?"

"Objection!" Flynch shouted. "She clearly dropped the weapon at the crime scene!"

Phoenix jolted. "Weapon? This is the first I'm hearing about it!"

"First anybody's heard about it..." Maya mused, resting her chin against her knuckles. "How does he even know anything's in that room, much less a weapon?"

"I'm... kind of surprised by this myself!" Johnny Smiles said aloud. "Couldn't see anything in the dark-"

"Hold it! What?!" Phoenix pointed Johnny Smiles out to the growing gallery. "You just said you saw my client in the dark, standing over the victim, and now you're claiming you couldn't see anything!"

"Well, I couldn'- I mean-" Johnny flashed a loud and bright and very nervous Smile, "Haha! Johnny Smiles conducted a thorough search by flashlight, of course!"

"Your Honor!" Phoenix smacked his fist into his palm and instantly regretted it. "Ow. I demand that the lights just get turned on so we can get a decent look at the crime scene already! It's clear this security guard hasn't thoroughly investigated!"

"I say, that is a rather blatant oversight, isn't it?" The judge noticed. "Mr. Johnny Smiles! Please turn on the lights to this room immediately!"

Less "oversight" and more "no sight at all," wasn't it? Phoenix thought.

"Like, I know people are quick to sentence folks back in the Fire Nation and everything," Maya said to herself. "But this was, like, really suspicious."

 _They sure wanted this lady put away fast..._ Phoenix thought. The lights came on in the room after a few failed flips of a broken switch, and the scene unfolded in seconds; the "victim" still holding a length of pipe in her hands, the jewelry from people's luggage stuffed into her pockets, and the sizable welt on the back of her head where the young lady couldn't even begin to reach from where Johnny claimed she was standing. With Flynch humiliated for jumping to convict an innocent girl- yeah funny how they were all into it until Phoenix proved them wrong- and Johnny receiving an earful from the Captain, no one seemed to bring up that the golden-haired girl did in fact seem to be a stowaway. They simply shuffled out of the nondescript hallway, some of them bringing their luggage with them, until it was only Phoenix, Maya, and their fastest "client" ever left in the hallway alone.

"Oh well. I'm adopting her."

"What?!" Nick shouted.

"She's coming back to the room with us until we hit shore!" Maya squatted down on the floor to talk to the quietly sitting young lady. "Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Maya Fey! This is Phoenix Wright, my assistant, and he just saved your life."

"Maya! No I did not!" Phoenix rubbed at his neck. "Sorry, Maya gets enthusiastic."

"You..." she finally spoke. "You protected me from them..."

He felt a little glow of pride in his chest that reminded him why he loved his job sometimes. "I'm a defense attorney. It's what I do."

"But..." she kept going, so very confused. "You both are... firebenders..."

"Um, wow! Assuming much?" Maya stood back up, batting her robes back into order. "We might be Fire Nation, but neither of us are benders."

"Trust me, I've tried..." Phoenix admitted with a little embarrassment. Nothing like being the one kid in your grade that couldn't bend anything... "Nothing happens."

"You... you two should read this." She reached into her belt and pulled out a thick book, holding the pages open for them to see. "Maybe you can help me, instead. I've lost my way so badly, and you have both been so kind..."

"Is this one of those illuminated manuscripts?" Maya peeked into the book first, Phoenix reading over her shoulder. The two of them reeled back when the letters danced on the page and blinded them with a flash of light.

"Woah! What's in your book?!" Phoenix cried. "It-"

Maya finished for him. "It's wriggly! What do you-"

The two of them opened their eyes to a massive and formless creature, enveloping their new friend from behind, and it mass swallowed both of them before they could make a sound.


	3. Labyrinthia, The First Day

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

He woke up.

His first thought was that he should not have been asleep. He could not remember going to bed, and indeed he was still in his normal clothes. What could he remember... the drive... Driving late at night to meet Carmine, and the young Espella, and the- the attackers!

His memories snapped into place. He was Professor Hershel Layton, and he had been under attack on a bridge in Republic City, and now he was- was in a wagon. A wooden cart, on a bench, and his head! His head was pounding- no, he had to find Luke. Was Luke safe? Where was he?

A quick stock of his surroundings was in order. He pulled himself upright and took in what he could see. He was inside a small covered cart, resting on a wooden bench along the left side. Along with himself, the interior was filled with boxes, ropes, pulleys, and sacks that flopped listlessly on the floor, half-full. It was moving. He could faintly see.. motion through the gaps in the canvas, as if the cart were passing in front of... a wall? The wagon rocked like it was rolling over bumpy terrain. Across from him, one other passenger in a long violet cloak sat to themselves, tucked shyly into the corner, and another little blue form-

"Luke," he said to himself, clarifying the thought through the haze in his mind. He reached over and shook the boy awake by the shoulder. This was Luke. He was here, he was all right, just asleep. No bruises or burns, no cuts, no signs of a fight. Just out cold. "Wake up, my boy."

Luke woke with only a little grunt of disapproval and a stretch, much to Layton's relief. He helped the boy to sit upright and watched him rub at his eyes. "Professor? When did I fall asleep?"

"That is exactly what I'm trying to ascertain. I've only just woken up myself." He took a moment to run his fingers through his hair under his hat. His skin felt hot to his own touch, and there was a tremor to his hand. "I'm afraid I'm working through a bit of a fog."

"Me too..." Luke shook his head and instantly regretted it. He pressed his palms to his temples. "I have a wicked headache... Did we go over the bridge, too? It doesn't make any sense..."

"There is no sense to make."

The two jumped as their other passenger finally decided to speak, soothing them over with a calm and understanding voice. "You are here, and here is where you will be. That is the end of it."

"That does seem to be where we currently stand, yes" Layton politely agreed.

Luke piped up, "But even if that's the end, it hardly explains the middle! For example, how did we get here? Are we still in Republic City? And who are you?"

The woman chuckled softly, and explained to Luke as if he were a child. "My boy... there is no Republic City."

The words certainly shocked Layton, and the shock was enough to cut through the fog a good bit. Apparently the same had happened to Luke, who stood up on the bench to point at the lady and make his opinion clear. Layton couldn't find the wherewithal to stop him, as his head chose that moment to swim and fuzz his vision with pain.

"Now hang on! I'm not 'your boy' and there is too a Republic City!" Luke shouted. "We just came from it! You can't just say we didn't and think that answers everything!"

"You think that now... but you will learn." The woman's tone took a fierce drop in tone, from comforting to threatening. "And you will stay here, whether you wish to or not."

The sudden shift sent a shiver down Luke's spine, and he hurriedly jumped to the other end of the cart with the Professor. Layton turned away from the woman, shielding Luke with his arm as she began to chuckle deep in her chest.

"Many others before you have made those same threats, and yet they are here, and forever will be." From under her cowl, she sneered dangerously. "My advice to you is this: keep your heads down. Ask no questions and accept all answers. It is the best way to survive here. Unless you can prove that is incorrect... Professor Layton."

He was somewhat used to people he did not know threatening him with knowledge of his name. He kept one arm in front of Luke, shielding him, and pulled his hat low and snug against his head. "You seemed quite insistent upon us accepting your version of the truth. Why would you ask us to prove you wrong?"

"On the contrary," she explained. "You would be proving me quite right. I have no doubt that a man of your caliber could solve the puzzle that is this place..."

She stood to her full height, towering above them in the small wagon. "And in doing so, Labyrinthia will fall."

Her arms flew out to fill the wagon, and she erupted into a pillar of fire. There was a rush of hot air that stung their eyes and blinded them, and a cold, empty laugh. When Layton could see again, the cart had stopped, the woman was gone without a trace, and an old withered hand was pulling aside the canvas to let them free.

"Where did she go?" Luke gasped behind him. "Quick, Professor, we have to-"

"Steady now, Luke. I don't believe we'll find her unless she wants to be found." It was his intuition talking, but his intuition was rarely wrong. He got to his feet and lead Luke by the shoulder. "She has given us our instructions. I suggest that, for now, we follow them."

"Think we're in danger, Professor?"

"Not immediately. Come, Luke."

They stepped out of the cart and came out 200 years in the past. The sharp angled roofs, adorned in green tiles, started low around them and built higher and higher along a wide thoroughfare until they reached a terminus far in the distance, a massively tall palace. Each wall was solid stone as if bent up from the earth itself, but none of them tilted or met at odd angles, the result of master craftsmanship. The street bustled with life, from merchants hawking food and clothing to guards patrolling alongside tag-along children. Each citizen, dark or light skinned, hair from black to white, of all ages, wore the plain green tunics and wide belts of the Old Earth Kingdom. The resounding slap of bare feet on hard stone echoed up and out into a nothingness. There was no sky. Above their heads was a rough dome of dusty brown earth, punctuated with great glowing crystals. The light was serviceable to see, but hardly sufficient. Luke noted to himself that he barely even cast a shadow.

The professor turned to ask something... whatever he would have thought of, to the woman who had driven the cart, but it was gone. All that lay behind them was a solid wall, not a gate but a wall that ran both directions and smothered the whole city in its grasp.

Layton swallowed at the sudden feeling of claustrophobia. The woman was not wrong. Here they would be.

"Was that woman just driving us around the wall, then?" Luke whispered.

"It is possible." Layton encourage Luke to walk, taking their first steps into the thriving community. "I believe I can safely assume that we are in the company of a great deal of earthbenders. It is not-"

"Well, of course you're surrounded by earthbenders..."

Luke dove into the professor's arm as a guard appeared behind them, lost in thoughts as they were. He was not an exceedingly tall man, but Layton and Luke were on the smaller size, and his imposing presence and thick leather armor made him out to be much larger. His eyes shone out at them from under a wide hat, green as jade. "Are you earthbenders?"

"Er-" Layton began to answer. "No, actually-"

"Fair enough." He waved off the rest of the answer. "Not like you can be anything else. You're obviously not water tribe... the boy though."

"My mum's from the south," Luke explained. "She likes it when I wear blue..."

"That's very unusual..." The guard crossed his arms; he wore a heavy stone gauntlet over his left arm, and with growing agitation he tapped his armored fingers against his elbow. "You don't hear of Water folk marrying outside the tribe often... What part of Labyrinthia are you from?"

"We... erm..." Luke looked to the professor for guidance, but the Layton met his gaze with uncertainty. He answered with the truth; it was all he had. "We just got dropped off here from the back of a wagon."

"Ah... refugees then." The guard offered his right, ungloved hand out of obligation, no warmth or welcome behind the gesture. Layton found himself taking it automatically only to have his own hand nearly crushed in the man's iron grip. The guard continued despite Layton's flinch and his unconscious pull backwards. "We haven't taken in anyone from the outside in a long time. You two are very lucky to escape the war."

Another guard approached from the distance, nearly identical in build and uniform. "Who are these men, Captain?"

"They claim to be refugees."

"Pardon the correction, sir," said Layton, gently trying to free his hand from the other's grasp. "But it was you who made the assumption that we were refugees. I'm happy to say that there is no war outside. We simply... oh..."

The iron hand clenched down hard, the guard's thumb pressed painfully against his palm, and Layton's head swam hard enough for him to nearly lose the strength in his legs. Luke jumped forward and grabbed hold of his elbow, attempting to pull the professor free. "Let him go! You're hurting him!"

"What does he say, Captain?"

"He isn't lying," the captain growled. "He believes there is no war."

Citizens turned their heads at the statement, staring at them. He recognized this now; seismic sensing him to see if he was lying. Layton recovered enough of his senses to plant his feet and pull back, and watching him struggle, Luke pulled his arm at the wrist. All they accomplished was straining the muscles in his wrist. He could feel Luke shuddering against his arm as the two guards gauntlets shifted with earthbending, sharpening themselves into wide katars.

"Makes perfect sense..." The subordinate held his arm at the ready. "Fire Nation would believe their massacres are justified."

"Not a war, no," the captain agreed. His left arm tensed in anticipation. "But a righteous conquest-"

Citizens grabbed their children and ran for cover. Layton pulled back his free arm, ready to do what he needed to protect Luke. Someone screamed-

Someone screamed loud and piercing, enough to break the guard's concentration. "Firebenders! In the forge! Someone hurry!"

The guard's grip loosened for just a moment, and it was long enough for Layton to snatch Luke up and run for a side street. He ducked into the first dark one he could find, pressing the two of them behind a stack of crates to shield them from view. His head pounded. His hand was still sore. He didn't dare to move. If they were capable of seismic sensing, then the second he or Luke made the slightest movement, their cover was lost. With Luke tucked into his arms and with a quick gesture for silence, the two of them waited.

It was a few long minutes of silence and a murmur of protest from the crowd later, but he guessed that the guards had gone to investigate the scream rather than follow them. It was further cemented with a slight noise caught his attention, and from around there corner, there came the golden-haired Espella, who spotted them and sighed with relief. "Sir Layton!"

"Espella! You're all right!" Luke unfolded himself and stood before Estella, relieved but still holding his aching head with one hand. Layton struggled to his feet. The pounding his head was oppressively loud now. It was enough to deafen him to Espella's voice a touch, and from the pallor of Luke's cheeks and the veneer of sweat clinging to his skin, he was in a similar state.

"Luke Triton! The apprentice! I remember you!" Espella gasped. "Oh, but you're both sweating! Are you in pain?" Espella set her chin and took each of them by the arm. With a grimace, she hoisted them to her side and locked them in step beside her. "Those... guards! They can be such bullies when Barnham isn't around... but don't worry. I'll bring you home. All you need is water, and it will soothe your pains."

Layton kept in step with Espella, but in his addled state, he couldn't tell where they were going. Alleys and side streets simply blended into each other as he walked, and trying to count his steps sent pulses through his head and stopped his train of thought. Stepping out into public in this state seemed like a dreadful idea, but at the very least he didn't hear any signs of trouble. "It shouldn't be as simple as that..."

"Trust me. I have had many headaches." Espella smiled at them goodnaturedly, but a faint haunting in her eyes told that she spoke from experience. "All you need is the Water of Truth, and you will be fine."

Luke gripped tight at her loose sleeves. "But we need medicine for headaches..."

That didn't seem to add up to Layton, either. He quietly caught Luke's attention and spoke behind Espella's back. "Luke, I believe the water here might contain something untoward..."

"You mean like something's poisoning people?" Luke asked. "Like the mushroom stew that made everyone sleepy in Mosinnia?"

"It's a possibility, if it has such an immediate medicinal effect. And with a name like 'The Water of Truth', I have my reasons to be suspicious."

"You don't think Espella would do something that would hurt us on purpose, would you?"

"No, Luke. She is a victim of the strange circumstances of this town, no doubt."

Espella pulled them aside to a storefront, and the smell of fresh baked bread was a balm against the two's shattered nerves. Luke took a long draft of the aroma, and even Layton's pain was starting to ebb away while Espella called for an Aunt Patty-

Suddenly there was a hard slam of hands against wood, enough to make him flinch. A cloud of dust- of flour!- sprung up from the other side of the room. "WELCOME! Freshest baked-"

"Mr. Wright, please!" Espella gasped. "They're in a state! They need water and quiet!"

"Oh! Um, sorry, Espella! I thought they were customers..."

"No no!" Espella took them by the arm one last time, guiding Layton to stand before a taller man in a long white apron. "Please, you and Ms. Fey, please bring them upstairs so they can rest? I'm afraid they've had a very terrible day..."

She kept talking, but Layton's attention was well taken with this man. Well, not by the man in particular, he noted. Not that he wasn't a fetching type, a tall, broad-shouldered sort with the jet-black hair of the Fire Nation and a kind but concerned expression on his face. No, it was the clothes underneath the apron; a modern-cut cotton suit with brass buttons and a shining badge pinned to his lapel. As his hand was taken and he was lead upstairs, Layton noted that the man was wearing leather shoes with laces and soles.

He and Luke weren't the only ones!

It was getting harder to think about such things, though. He and Luke had been pulled into an upstairs bedroom lit only by a crack in the window shutters. A woman he hadn't noticed until now, wearing lavender silk robes and a baker's smock over them, was gently encouraging Luke to lay down and drink from a polished marble cup. The brave boy turned his head and gently refused, even as her insistence grew louder and more painful on his ears.

"Maya, relax! Let them rest." The man turned to Layton, offering a hand for him to shake. "Okay, let's try some introductions. My name's Phoenix Wright. I'm a baker. This is Maya Fey."

Maya waved. "Helloooo!"

"And we want to help you get better." Phoenix was still holding out his hand. Layton took it with caution; Phoenix shook it delicately, minding his tender muscles. "So, why does Luke keep saying he can't drink the water?"

Luke had been speaking? Layton shook his head to clear his thoughts and regretted it immensely. His ears rumbled as if boulders were rattling behind his ears and crashing into the backs of his eyes. He doubled over and didn't even realize he'd been sitting down on a bed until his elbows met a mattress. Maya was... talking. It was so far away. Luke was struggling. He was taking his coat off-

No, Phoenix was taking his coat off for him, and his words were coming back. "-really bad off. I understand. I've had the headaches too."

Another person? Espella admitting to them was a coincidence, but this only strengthened his suspicion that something was in the water. He couldn't drink it.

"Suspicion?"

Had he said that out loud?

"Yeah, you did." Phoenix Wright coaxed Layton to lie down in the bed and placed a wet cloth around the back of his neck, grabbing a nearby book and fanning him. The cool sensation against his skin gave him something to focus on, and with bleary eyes, he watched Phoenix explain himself.

"Espella told me that it's your first day in Labyrinthia. I get it! It can be scary being someplace new, and then the guards are scared of firebenders coming in from the outside and wrecking up the place, and what they did to you was unjustified but we can deal with that after you're feeling better, right?" Phoenix smiled. "Right! And I should know! I'm Wright all the time!"

Luke giggled and then whimpered in pain.

Phoenix winced and came back to Layton, a cup of water in hand. "And yeah, maybe you could say 'I won't drink the water, something's inside it that'll make me sick'. What about all the food that's made with that water? And the milk from the goatphers? They drink that water too. You're not gonna get away from it, not without starving yourself."

He put the cup in Layton's hands, and it was cool against his fingers. "And are you really gonna have your son over there suffer because you have a suspicion?"

The idea that his hunch was causing Luke pain cut through Layton's mind. There was logic in Wright's argument. Resigned to his fate, Layton repeated essential thoughts in his mind- "You are Professor Hershel Layton you parents are Roland and Lucille Luke Triton is your apprentice you are a-" and downed the water in one swig.

The rush of relief, the sudden release from pain was euphoria. It chased down his throat in a cooling wave, and by the time it settled in his stomach it had gone completely. Exhaustion rushed in to fill the void it left, and his last sight before falling asleep was Luke taking a long draught from his own cup.

Phoenix Wright was left in the only bedroom of the bakery, he and Maya and the two sudden guests that Espella had dragged through the streets and in the front door like lost pets. They made the little room seem that much smaller, just the two beds (one with a trundle, so technically three) and the bookshelf and the fireplace that Espella never dared to light. Suddenly there was a stranger asleep on his bed, most of his height being his top hat, mumbling in delirium about suspicions and Luke.

"Welp." Maya snickered. "Guess you better push him aside. Espella's gonna sleep on the trundle now."

 _Of all the things to say!_ Phoenix startled. "Wait, what? But you sleep on the trundle, where am I gonna?"

"Didn't you hear Espella?" Maya chided. "This isn't his son. This is his apprentice. As in they're not family? As in 'ew, don't put them in the same bed'."

"You hypocrite!" Phoenix shouted back. "Where does that put-"

Maya tucked Luke widthwise against the head side of the bed, and then threw herself down lengthwise on the foot end. Their bodies didn't touch. "Thank the Storyteller for being vertically challenged!"

Phoenix groaned. "Writer of The Story or not, I don't think The Storyteller had a hand in you being short."

Maya propped herself up on one shoulder. "And besides, you don't wanna force Espella to share a bed with some strange man, do you?"

"NO!" Phoenix winced. _Aunt Patty would kill me!_

"Well then, you're just gonna have to bite the bullet tonight, Nick." Maya hopped off the bed and bounced her way down the stairs, leaving little puffs of flour in her wake. "And take their shoes off for me, would ya? Thanks bye!"

"Hey wait just- eugh." Good job weaseling out of that one, Maya. Phoenix sighed and gave the visitor a soft pat on the shoulder. "You just concentrate on getting better, okay? See you... um... tonight. I guess."

This had to be the weirdest day of his life here in Labyrinthia... he tried to think of another one that matched how odd today had been.

He couldn't quite think of one.


	4. Labyrinthia, The Second Day: Morning

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

Espella's voice cut through the dark of sleep. "I've brought breakfast. Everyone up!"

He grumbled his way to wakefulness, feeling around for his hat in the dark of morning. When his hand settled on a human body, Layton startled to full wakefulness, and quickly took stock of his thoughts and memories. They were all there, every detail up to falling asleep, and he took a long breath. Time to take stock of his surroundings.

For one, Mr. Wright was lying in bed next to him. The man had graciously given him the covers, by the look of it, and had his suit jacket pulled over his chest as a makeshift blanket. Slightly roused by Layton's accidental pat to the chest, Mr. Wright was taking his time to stretch his arms over his head. Layton followed his line of sight to the other side of the room, where Maya and Luke- still very much asleep- were being gently shaken awake by a breakfast-weilding Espella.

"Go away," Maya said plainly. "Sun's not up."

"Maya," Espella chided. "We're underground. We can't see the sun." As if to prove the point, she opened the shutters above their bed and flooded the room with light from the glowing crystals lining the, for lack of a better word, 'ceiling' of Labyrinthia.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." The sullen teenager, for only a teenager would rage against the idea of mornings so vehemently, turned over in bed and yanked the covers off of Luke. He woke with a questioning sound as Maya kept up her protest. "Who puts an entire town underground?"

"That's... actually what I'm here to talk to you about. Please, everyone eat." Espella placed the little tray of food on the floor and sat down on her knees. "Especially you, Sir Layton and Luke. There's much I have to explain, I think, to keep you two safe. And I'd like Mr. Wright and Maya to hear this too."

"Shouldn't we be getting to work?" Mr. Wright asked. He sat up in bed, and to Layton's utter horror, handed him his hat off of a wall shelf. He hurriedly donned his hat as Mr. Wright continued his questioning. "It seems like me and Maya should get the oven on, at least."

Espella shivered at the mention of the oven. "No no, Aunt Patty has taken care of that already. Please, eat, everyone. And I'll explain."

"All right, if you say so..." With a shy smile, Mr. Wright sidled out of the bed and took the professor's coat off of the bedpost. He offered it with one hand, the other rubbing the back of his neck in self-comfort. "Hope you... slept? Well? Sorry about the bed situation."

"I slept really well, actually..." Luke felt the need to mention. He was just barely able to bed out from his little nest of covers, yawning aloud and unrumpling his little hat. He had the whole room yawning at least once in short order. "But my back is sore..."

Maya answered, and as she spoke her voice piped higher and higher into a adoring squeak. "Probably because you sleep all curled up into a little ball like a little kitten!"

"Oy, stop that! I'm not little!" He pulled down his hat and straightened it with gusto. "And how do you know that, anyway?"

Chuckling at the little back and forth, Layton made sure his coat and shoes were on before sitting down at the breakfast spread. They soon all sat on the floor together around the little tray, and broke bread over a simple meal of rice and eggs and a thin soup. It almost felt wrong; with the smell of yeast proofing rolling up from the stairs, one would assume breakfast would include bread. Once or twice Maya was caught staring longingly down the flight, as if tempted to go down and snatch a loaf. Mr. Wright brought her back to earth with a gentle touch to the shoulder, and a least once a half-joking attempt to steal her remaining food. Everyone ate in silence, anticipating Espella's words.

"I've been... thinking, very carefully, since a few days ago." She worried her hands in her lap as she spoke. "Over the last few days I've noticed that if I try to piece together my days from beginning to end, I simply... cannot. There are holes in my memory. But I have held onto some feelings, and a few memories, like Sir Layton and Luke. I know they come from outside, I just... can't remember outside."

"You don't remember Carmine?" Layton asked.

"I... no. I've never heard that name before." Espella shook her head. "Or, I don't think I have. Maybe. But I do remember Mr. Wright and Maya."

"Well, yeah you remember us," Maya countered. "We've lived here our whole lives."

Layton hummed.

"I hear some protestation," said Maya with an air of confidence. "From Mr. Silk Hat over there."

"Maya please! That's part of what I'm talking about!" Espella hushed herself after her raise in tone. "The guards yesterday nearly hurt Sir Layton because when he said things they didn't understand, they got angry with him. I don't want anyone angry with each other, please."

Maya had the good sense to look abashed. "I wasn't angry! I was just pointing out the obvious."

Layton cradled his hand in his chin. "Indeed. But sometimes, what is obvious isn't necessarily the truth."

Mr. Wright stopped in the middle of chewing and grew a faraway look in his eyes, as if something about the statement rang home. Layton noticed with a quick glance over his shoulder, and a happy sort of tension straightened Luke's back and set Layton's mind whirring.

"Miss, if I may," Layton inquired, "I would like to raise an interesting proposition: that of the five of us, only one has been living in Labyrinthia for any period of time."

"Okay, Mr. Hat. Challenge accepted!" Maya slammed her hands into the floor, her face alight and fierce with determination. Any hint of sleepiness from that morning was long gone. "Fire away! I'll blow your argument into little pieces!"

"Maya, that's-" Mr. Wright's protestation stopped before it had even begun, his mouth hanging open mid-word. "It's... um... hmm. Carry on?"

"But-" Espella choked. "This seems very aggressive..."

"Hold your ostrich-horses a minute, Espella." Maya leaned forward. "Challenge!"

Maya's enthusiasm was infectious. Layton hid a smile behind his hand and posited, "I would raise the obvious question; if Mr. Wright and Miss Maya-"

"Miss Fey. It sounds more official."

"-had been living here their entire lives..." He pointed to Maya's robes. "Then they would certainly have a change of clothes."

"I-" Maya's smiled dropped as quickly as it had appeared. "Well of course I have a change of clothes, they're in the-" She struggled, her eyes searching the room. There were no cabinets or trunks or dressers to hold anything, simply bookshelves. She even pulled the mattress up to check underneath; nothing. "Um..."

"That's what I came to talk to you all about!" Espella interrupted. "The four of you must be from the outside... but I can't remember how any of you came here, or why, or even for how long."

"It must have been very recently, for all of us." Layton met Luke's gaze, to make sure he wasn't speaking for the both of them. "Luke and I still have our memories of Republic City from yesterday."

"That's true," Luke clarified.

"And while I cannot say with absolute certainty, Mr. Wright and Miss Fey could not have been here much longer. If I may?" He took Mr. Wright's closer arm and held it out to inspect. "His clothes haven't had a chance to wrinkle severely, nor has he acquired new clothes to better assimilate."

"Woah." Maya did an odd gesture on either side of her head. "You're blowin' my mind here, Sir Layton. I mean, I've lived in Labyrinthia my whole-"

Phoenix raised a hand, silencing Maya. "I don't remember any of 'our whole life' here."

Maya stopped in her tracks again. Luke could swear he could hear the mental brakes screeching. "Well, yeah, Nick! There was the... the time where-"

Luke grinned. "You don't remember any of it either!"

Layton nodded assuredly. "Because it didn't happen."

"But why would you be in from the outside and not remember it?" Espella asked them. "What about the War?"

"I believe," Layton stated. "That is our cue for your explanation. I am sorry to have made you wait, Espella. Now please, tell us everything you can. What war do you speak of?"

She told them The Great War, the seige of the Fire Nation against the Earth Kingdom. How it began with the genocide of the peaceful Air Nomads, and how the Water Tribes were surely next. How the Avatar had not been seen for nearly a century, long enough for humanity to doubt its existence. How the dreaded Fire Lord commanded his fierce army of bloodthirsty firebenders against the brave and noble defense forces of the Earth King each and every day, but in this fearful time came a thread of hope. A great man of fantastic powers, the benevolent and wonderful Storyteller, found that if he wrote his words, then they came true. But the Fire Lord had a dread power to match his own, and so to hone his skills and keep the people of the Earth Kindom safe, he carved Labyrinthia into the heart of the earth itself and hid its people within its walls. For so long as they stayed within, they would never be touched by the evil Fire Lord or his cruel firebenders.

"Or so he thought..." Espella swallowed thickly. "For one hundred years ago, the firebenders came and burned the city to ashes, and none escaped. The Fire Lord's dread magic found its way into Labyrinthia. The Storyteller cannot prevent the Fire Lord's actions, but he can predict them, and it is up to the people of the town to find his agents and punish them for their cruelty."

"Some all-powerful Storyteller," Maya huffed.

"Yeah," Luke agreed, "All that power and he can't even keep his people safe."

Mr. Wright shushed them both. "Look, I might not have the best grip on the situation, but even I know talk like that's going to get you on the Storyteller's bad side."

Espella nodded gravely. "As well as the town guard, and all of the citizens. They love the Storyteller dearly. He gave them life, after all."

"What about you, Espella?" Luke asked.

"He..." Espella chose her words very carefully. "I owe him very much. But I know that he is... a man. He isn't perfect. Perhaps these gaps in my memory... are pieces he hasn't written yet?"

Maya and Luke set about theorizing, about plot holes and ignoring characters for the sake of developing other townspeople. Phoenix, meanwhile, had taken note of the professor. Ever since Espella started explaining, he'd withdrawn into himself. It wasn't simple silence, not with the haunted look that clouded his small, dark eyes. His hand had even stayed firmly clamped over his mouth, hiding his expression from the baker. He hadn't moved. He hadn't spoken a word.

Something had made him dreadfully uncomfortable, and he hoped it hadn't been him. It must have been something in Espella's story, but... what?

Either way, he thought hard about what to do, and decided to lay a hand on the professor's thin shoulder. Sir Layton shook as if electrocuted and gasped aloud, turning the attention of the room solely upon him.

"Sorry." He pulled his hat low and cleared his throat. "I had become lost in thought."

Luke said, with quiet understanding, "That's okay, professor."

"Espella. I have two questions." He came back to himself. "Where does the Storyteller write his story? How do the townspeople know what he has written?"

"He writes The Story into his sacred tomes, the Historia Labyrinthia. If he fills one, it goes into The Archive at The Great Library in the center of town." Espella tugged at the tip of one of her braids. "But once a week, The Storyteller throws a great parade down the main street. His procession tosses out pages of The Story on paper. The whole town gathers to read it, and brings the pages to those who can't make it."

"So he has to write it into his big book, and write enough pages for every single person in town to have a copy?" Maya asked.

Luke needled, "And if you'd lived here your whole life you would've known that."

The professor scolded, "Luke, there is no need for that."

"Indeed. This takes up much of The Storyteller's time," Espella explained. "He is rarely seen amongst his people, lately. He spends most of his time in his palace, deep in the heart of old Labyrinthia. It is built into the wall itself, as a sign of protection."

Layton nodded. "Hmm. I believe, with this knowledge in mind, we may safely enter the town and cause no trouble. Luke, my boy, get your shoes. I believe a visit to this Archive is in order."

Luke bounced to his feet. "Right away!"

"Mr. Wright, Miss Fey, I will leave you to your work."

"Got it!" Maya cheered.

"I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for, Sir Layton." Espella cleared the dishes and stood to her feet. "I have my errands to run. We should all meet in here again at dinner and hear what Sir Layton has learned."

In the little flurry of activity, Layton stood to stand and found that Mr. Wright's hand still rested upon his shoulder. In fact, Mr. Wright seemed to be holding him there with a slight weight, and there again was that slight, shy smile.

"Hey... if there's anything else you want to talk about..." Mr. Wright implored. "I mean, I know we don't know each other all that well, but... I'll listen, at least. If it'll help."

"Indeed." He rested his hand against the brim of his hat. Not pulling it, not adjusting, just holding it. "What has brought this about, if I may ask, Mr. Wright?"

The hand left his shoulder to rub at Mr. Wright's neck. "I like helping people?"

"A noble cause," Layton smiled and stood. "For a baker."


	5. Labyrinthia, The Second Day: Midday

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

Under better circumstances, the sight of all these books would have been an absolute treat. They lined every wall to the ceiling, different heights and colors and volumes, curving around every corner and running down every hallway. The air was thick with the smell of aged parchment, and for the first time since they had arrived, the candle-lit building was brightly lit and agreeable to their eyes.

The contented feeling snuffed like a candle. Layton suspected something was terribly wrong with the place near immediately, and he pulled Luke closer to his side. Indeed, although tables and chairs filled a central reading area, no one was reading. Librarians checked over tomes, but no one was re-shelving. One man rushed by with a haphazardly stacked tower of books, but took them nowhere. The professor watched the man make a full circle of the building and start it again, never once picking any up or putting them down. All of this in an even, unflickering, sickly light that began to make every color pale and washed away.

"Professor..." Luke whispered. "This place is creepy."

"Sssh..." The professor patted Luke's shoulder soothingly. "Let us simply ask a few questions and see what we can turn up."

Almost as quickly as he'd spoken, someone in the lobby had turned to them and was approaching in strong, even steps. Layton knew that walk. A librarian, he guessed, and from the way the staff parted to let her through, the head librarian. A feat, indeed, for the woman looked quite young, perhaps Espella's age. Even as she stood at full height before the two, she scarcely came up to the professor's nose. She painted an odd picture, as well, tightly clutching a logbook and adjusting her oversized spectacles. They almost seemed as if made for a larger woman, and yet here she was, little and authoritative.

"How can I help you?" she asked in her firmest library voice.

"Good evening, madam." He tipped his hat slightly. "My name is Hershel Layton. I've recently taken up an interest in The Story, and I wish to peruse the archives. Could you direct us to the proper section?"

"The proper section? What ignorance." She gestured behind her, to the entire library. "This entire library is The Story."

"Cor!" Luke gasped. "Every single one of these books?"

"All hand-written by the great Storyteller," she explained with an air of reverence. "Our history goes back for hundreds of years, and all of it is inscribed into these lovely tomes."

"May we please read an entry?" Layton asked. "I wish to see the earliest one, the founding of this city."

"The founding of Labyrinthia is a tale we know by heart!" The librarian peered out at Layton behind her spectacles. "How do you call yourself a citizen?"

"I'm afraid I am not, currently." Luke made an almost imperceptible noise of worry, but there was no lying his way into having her think he was a resident. "The Storyteller must have seen fit to bring me in from the outside, and I find myself lacking in knowledge."

Her disapproval still evident behind cold lenses, the librarian's face softened a bit. "Ah, I see. Well, I do respect your wish to improve yourself. It is an attribute often found lacking in the citizenry. I must introduce myself; I am Ridelle, curator of the Great Archive." She bowed slightly, keeping her eyes on Layton in an unbroken stare. "I'm afraid that the First Story has been locked deep away, to prevent its desecration by those who would wish us harm."

Layton made a noncommittal sound, agreeing with the statement and not entirely surprised by it at the same time. Of course it would be inaccessible to the general public. His luck, he supposed. "Then please, if you could show us to a piece of the Story you find significant?"

"All of the Story is significant..." Ridelle adjusted her glasses. "But, if you insist on learning, I can take you on a short tour of the Archive itself."

This would work. He smiled for Ridelle, as did Luke after a quick glance to the professor's face. "That would be lovely. Thank you for this great opportunity, Miss Ridelle."

The curator smiled in turn and bowed, a little deeper and much more sincere than the last. "Please follow me, gentlemen."

Ridelle began her tour, starting them on the left and winding the two around the library's circumference. Its imposing scale spoke more of castles and temples than a simple library. The floor dipped down before them, funneling into the smaller reading area via a narrow flight of stairs. The ceiling was high enough to where looking up to see it put a kink in the professor's neck. The decor seemed to encourage him not to look upwards; the walls were decorated in horizontal bas reliefs that detailed a battle between Earth Kingdom soldiers and the Fire Nation. Guarding those reliefs were great stone carvings of owls, looking down upon the lobby with wide, judging eyes. It was one of the few places they had been in Labyrinthia proper, but even so, the carpeted floor was a rarity. It masked their footfalls as they walked, keeping the eerie silence as they spanned the great hall. It seemed to be built on a circle, with spokes of corridors leading off on the northwest and -east sides (or at least as far as he could determine "north" without the sun or a compass) into areas Ridelle suspiciously skipped over. Perhaps the First Story was beyond those halls. Perhaps it's where the caretakers had tea on scones on their breaks. His curiosity nibbled at the back of his mind, aching to know.

Ridelle spoke at length about the history of the building, built up from nothing, and how it had been destroyed in the Great Fire and painstakingly rebuilt and hand-copied by The Storyteller. It all seemed to line up with Espella's summary from the bakery. His head would still give a bit of an ache whenever he looked over the volumes on the shelves, though. Something about them wasn't entirely right. He could feel it.

On a lark, when Ridelle's attention was turned elsewhere for a moment, he reached over and rapped his knuckles against a book.

It knocked. It was made of wood.

The noise in the quiet startled everyone, himself included. Ridelle spun on her heel looking for the source of the noise, while Luke quietly gasped and tried to sneak a book off the shelf from behind the professor. It was made of wood. He ran his fingertips down the spines in a great sweep. All of the books were made of wood! They seemed to be a single, carved block, built directly into the shelf. Luke threw his entire weight into one hard pull and they didn't so much as budge. The professor put a hand on Luke's shoulder. Stop, it said. Stay inconspicuous.

"We must call the Inquisition as soon as possible," Ridelle stated to her staff. "Have them sweep the Archive for firebenders in the walls."

Oh dear, he had to act quickly if he wanted to see evidence of this story firsthand. "I beg pardon, Miss Ridelle, but is there any volume of the Story that I can read before the 'Inquisition' arrives?"

Ridelle huffed. "You have been free to pick a book off the shelf at your leisure-"

Luke huffed back. "Sure we have."

"Luke, ssh."

"- but with suspicious noises in the stonework, I can only authorize you to read the most recent tome." Ridelle continued with her conditions in a clipped tone, scanning the lobby as if intruders would spill out of the very walls. "Under my direct supervision, and as soon as the Inquisition arrives you must immediately leave the premises under their watch."

"Understood." He tipped his hat again. "I would not wish to interfere with the investigation."

She swept them down to the central lobby, down from their upstairs bookshelves and into the reading pit below. She pulled a book, an actual book, from one of the low and humble shelves and placed it on a table with a hearty thump. From the speed at which she worked, the Inquisitors must have been either very close or quick to respond to summons. They wouldn't have much time.

Ridelle opened it to the middle. The professor politely put his fingers on the page to prevent her from turning it, looking over the words. Just like what he had seen in Republic City, there was the "story" in the center of the page and the old script written around the edge. A little memory jogging and context had him deciphering the script in short order; "2 Fire Nation, 3 no-benders, supplies of food moved without issue. 3 due to Shade. No word from her, but doing well." and finally, the date: a Sunday, roughly 3 months ago.

Luke peeked over his arm. "What's it say, Professor?"

The professor whispered back. "It's clerical information."

"Really?"

"Yes." He flipped to a few pages before and after, just to make sure. Weekly installments, same sort of reports. Minimal, references to "her", and a date, and little more. Occasionally a bit of mathematics in the higher numbers, but to what end, he was unsure. "I have a hunch we will need a more specific date if we're going to find anything of worth. Thank you, Miss Ridelle."

"Was that it?" she re-shelved the book in a hurry. "All of that fuss for looking over a few pages?"

"I will return once I have more available time. Come now, Luke." Luke took his offered hand quickly, and they both set off for the door as quickly as they could without breaking into a run.

They skirted past the Inquisition just outside the front door. A wave of guards, all bearing stone gauntlets, stormed past them with nary a look to the side. With their safety assured a moment longer, the two left the Archive and wandered the town a moment, getting a rough lay of the land before making their way back to the bakery. Maya met them with a loud "HELLO!" before recognizing them and waving them behind the counter.

"Quick! Tell me how it went down!" She leaned all her weight onto her hands, eyes bright and waiting. "Any conspiracies?"

Layton fluffed his coat, casting little rings of flour onto the floor. "Some small findings, here and there."

"Most of the books in the library are fake!" Luke craned his neck up to see over the high counter top. Maya gasped in surprise and leaned farther over to meet Luke's gaze. "It's true! They're made of wood and they're built into the wall!"

"That... doesn't make any sense!" Mr. Wright appeared from the back. He balanced a loaf of bread on the end of a long peel with one arm and did a wiggly motion with his free hand. "Don't the guards here have that earthbender thing where they see through the ground?"

The professor gasped aloud himself. "That is why the library was carpeted!"

"Woah!" Maya swallowed hard at the thought. "They've covered their bases... literally."

"Hey, we haven't been slacking off here, either!" Mr. Wright moved the peel to his other hand. "Maya and I have been asking people about the Storyteller, too."

"But in a secret way!" Maya tittered with glee! "We just start talking about how he's so cool and then everybody starts bragging on him!"

Mr. Wright nodded. "About how he gives them their purpose in life-"

"He even tells 'em whether their babies are boys or girls!"

"Whether their business will prosper-"

"Or fail!"

The taller man pulled a face of disapproval. "It's kind of spooky how they gush about it like he's their own personal-"

"AND-" Maya interrupted. "They all know what's gonna happen 'cause he holds these big parades through the middle of town and throws it at their heads!"

"Good gravy!" Luke cried.

The professor's only thought as he kept up with the barrage of information was "Throws it at their heads, Ms. Fey?"

"Maya!" Maya corrected. "And he does! They get tossed around like a Tic-Tac parade!"

"Ticker tape," Mr. Wright corrected. "And there's one tonight. We're going to go with the boss. Her orders."

"We were gonna try and stay back and wait for you two, but she wouldn't let us..." Maya thumped her hands against the counter, sending up little poofs of flour. "But this works! Because you're back early, we can all go together and see the craz-"

"Sssh!" Mr. Wright shushed them as the boss, a rotund little yeast roll of a woman, stepped out of the storeroom. "Let's save that for when we're back from the parade."


	6. Labyrinthia, The Second Day: Evening

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

The village moved with the single-minded stride of a people with purpose. Even Mr. Wright and Ms. Fey fell into step as if they had been here their whole lives, a sight which put the professor's nerves on edge. He kept a hand tight on Luke's shoulder. Out of all the happy smiles, the straight-ahead stares of the citizens, the slap of bare feet on hard stone, only Espella's face matched his own thoughts. She kept her head low and her cloak pulled up as if the green cloth would render her invisible. He almost wished he could do the same. He hadn't felt like such an outsider since he was a young boy, and the memories brought him no pleasure.

Mr. Wright's boss and Espella's auntie, by the sound of it, turned out to be a welcome distraction. Patty Eclair, she told the two, a baker with a long list of wants from the Storyteller. She kept up with all the tales of her neighbors and family, bemoaned the lack of Story involving her dear Espella, wished she could have bigger parts like the ones in her youth. Oh the stories the Storyteller used to write about her, she would exclaim but never elaborate. Luke's face, carefully schooled into as neutral a frown as he could manage, was a balm to the professor's frazzled nerves. At least in this, he was not alone. He had Luke and he had Espella.

Perhaps, he would have Mr. Wright. Layton caught the assumed baker's eyes only once, as they rounded a corner. The sudden shift from quiet crowd talk to blaring horns brought his attention back from oblivion, but before he could speak, Maya was voicing her thoughts aloud.

"WOW, Nick, look at all the jade!"

Thusly, his attention was taken. Layton cut through the crowd to step to the curb, pulling Luke along behind him.

Along the entire street, the parade thundered on in full force. Guards in full armor rode ostrich horses decorated in gemstones and fine silk, bearing tall green banners bearing the same owl symbol as the library walls. Carved ceramic horns blasted their praises above the heads of the crowd, who echoed screams of delight back tenfold. The sound rattled his bones more than cacophony should, and to his horror, Layton felt the pangs of headache rumbling in the back of his skull.

Luke tugged at his arm, though, and he returned Luke's enthusiasm with a smile.

"This is amazing, Professor! Look at the ostrich horses! Look at the jewels!"

"It's certainly quite impressive, Luke," he answered automatically, although his attention was very much elsewhere. His eyes wandered to the crowd, instead, and how their hands reached out into the street to catch the guards by their cloaks and stirrups. Women held their babies aloft and thanked the Storyteller. Men clutched their elderly mothers to their sides and thanked the Storyteller. Poor serfs held aloft their sacks of payment, blacksmiths their swords, milkmaids their milk, children their lost teeth, and thanked the Storyteller.

The guards marched past, and their charge followed. "Charge" seemed to weak a word, though, for this was no ordinary man. Layton could tell at a glance that this was a figure of great importance, from the solid jade of his massive carriage to the flowing silk curtains that framed his great writing desk, not the green of the Earth Kingdom hoi polloi but the rich purple of royalty. A small fleet of pure-white ostrich horses, glittering with gemstones and single-mindedly pulling forward without a driver to lead them, radiated energy and beauty much like the glowing crystal wheels of the great chariot itself.

Yet the great platform was shared. In the back, a hunched man, a shock of white hair and an ever-moving arm. His dress resplendent, but hidden behind a writing desk. A face wizened and stern, but half-hidden behind a mask. A lick of a brush wicking against parchment, lost among the roar of the crowd. This could not be him, Layton thought. This was their great Storyteller? This hiding figure, shrinking from his own population?

His eyes went instead to the proud figure, standing tall and true at the head of the chariot. A striking woman in violet so dark it was nearly black, the obsidian sheen of her hair framing an alabaster face and flinty eyes. It was her that looked back into the crowd with a firm approval, with a smile that promised much.

"Behold, Labyrinthia!" Her arm tucked into the folds of her cloak. "Your new Story!"

The air rustled, and soon what little light there was blacked out under a cloud of paper and parchment.

Layton and Luke shouted as the crowd rushed forward, grabbing and leaping for the papers. Not a single one tore or crumpled, each person treating them as if they were a delicate spirit once a page was in their hand. Even Mr. Wright and Ms. Fey, to his horror, were throwing themselves into the throng to grab for the pages.

Luke's shoulder wrenched out of his arm, and Layton's chest seized up at the thought of Luke running for a page when he heard his apprentice shout. "PROFESSOR!"

"Luke!" It was the crowd, pulling them apart! He reached out for Luke, grabbing the boy by the sleeve and holding on for dear life as the crowd around him shoved forward and the guards pressed back against them. It crushed him into Patty behind him, Luke before him, Mr. Wright and Espella on either side. His arms pinned, but Luke safely in his clutches, Layton tried to lift his head to breathe.

That woman, that proud figurehead on the chariot, glared.

"OH DAMN! Professor look! Look!" Maya's arm somehow found him in the crowd, facing the paper in front of his now. "Look at this!"

"Maya! Put that down!" Mr. Wright chided. "Don't just wave stuff in people's faces!"

"But look at it! It says two dudes are gonna die!"

The crowd around them gasped and hurriedly pulled away, each person's face buried into their own copy of the Story. Layton, freed suddenly, took a deep breath-

A flash of memory struck him. Carmine's apartment, the book, the taste at the back of his throat.

The smell of The Story!

It made him cough as Maya read aloud. "Listen, listen- 'The fearsome firebender moved deeper into the moonlit woods, casting a deathly shadow as she passed between the trees. And when the two young companions stepped into the darkness outside of the walls, they were drawn into her circle of flame and their lives were consumed!'"

"Wait... outside the walls?" Mr. Wright scratched his neck. "I thought we couldn't get out-"

"Just lookin' over the people getting cooked, Nick?!" Maya slapped the paper. "This is primo stuff, here! It's a literal Murder He Wrote!"

"But this doesn't make sense-" Luke shuddered. "How could he write something like this, if he's in charge of all these people-"

"Everyone, please, calm down!" Aunt Patty gently touched a shoulder here, a back there, and gathered their little group together. "I know you're all upset, but we must trust in the Storyteller. If he writes about such things, it's because he wants that evil firebender caught and punished for her deeds."

"What?! But that's crazy!" Mr. Wright protested. "So someone has to die just to catch one firebender?!"

"Not just one!" Maya pointed out. "TWO people! It says it right there on the paper!"

"Then we have to stay together!" Luke cried. "The bunch of us!"

"I call dibsies on Nick and the boss!"

"Espella? Oh good heavens where is Espella?!"

"Espellaaa!"

Layton's head pounded. He fell into Mr. Wright's waiting hand, bracing his shoulder as he tried to regain his bearings. None of this was right, how could all of these people believe this so readily? What was this village, and what were they all doing here?

"- the professor's looking weak again!"

"Oh dear!" Aunt Patty propped up the professor onto one of her shoulders. "Phoenix, dear, get the other one. Maya, you get the boy."

"The boy's gotten, boss!" Maya called out, already hoisting Luke onto her shoulders.

"I'm so grateful the Storyteller wrote you into my little bakery," Patty quietly passed along to Layton. "I don't think you've the constitution to last in the outside world. The War would've eaten you right up. Let's get you some bread and water and a little rest."

Bread. Water. Rest, yes.

But Layton set his jaw. He had to get back into that library. If his answers couldn't be found on these pages, they must be somewhere in those tomes, somewhere the librarian didn't want him to look.

He only hoped he could wake up under his own power.


	7. Labyrinthia, The Second Day: Night

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

He was Professor Layton his parents were Roland and Lucille...

He was himself. He wrenched himself awake in the dark, hunger pinching his belly but warm and comfortable. It smelled like rising yeast. He uncurled his fingers and touched a warm body. His hand went up to his own head and touched hair.

"Mr. Wright..." he sighed to the dark. "Please stop removing my hat."

Placed again in the space between Mr. Wright and the wall, Layton awkwardly slid himself over the sleeping baker and onto the bedroom floor. No one else in the room was awake. A quick check found Espella in the trundle and Luke and Maya in the bed across from him, soundly asleep and covered up, the shutters locked tight. His hat rested on the same spot on the wall, the mantle above the unlit fireplace. He took his hat first, of course, fixing it tight to his head before searching for his shoes. He tucked them under his arm and tiptoed his way down the stairs and into the bakery.

Utter silence met him below. The only sound came from Patty sleeping in a back room somewhere behind the oven, which even now was putting out heat from the last day's round of baking. All shutters locked tight, everything put away but a fine coating of powder which no amount of sweeping would ever remove.

He sat on the steps and slipped his shoes on. Nighttime would be his ally on this mission. His intuition, even now, was pulling him to that library. That the Storyteller would store his own records so carelessly boggled his mind, or perhaps that wasn't what did it. It was the hubris behind it, that the population believed him so unquestioningly that he could store the volumes in a "public" library and have nothing thought of it. That they would stay, forever untouched, in a vast temple built to himself.

Perhaps he was putting intentions into the man. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, watching shadows flicker on the floor. Easy, Hershel. One piece of information at a time to solve a puzzle.

"Professor?"

It took every ounce of his strength not to make a sound. It was just Mr. Wright's voice, after all, and he stood to his feet so he could probably meet the confused eyes at the top of the stairs. "Mr. Wright."

"What are you doing up? You need to sleep..." His gaze snapped downward. "And why are your shoes on?"

"I'm leaving to investigate." He fluffed his coat, bracing his defenses up against Mr. Wright's searching look. "I shall be back by morning, I'm certain."

"With the firebenders around? By yourself? Wait-" Mr. Wright slipped down the stairs with naught but a click from the soles of his own shoes- and didn't he feel silly for not noticing when Mr. Wright had- and took his shoulders in his hands. "You can't be serious! Where are you-"

His volume was steadily rising, and Layton quickly hushed him with a finger to his lips. Mr. Wright caught himself and copied the gesture.

Nonetheless, the questions continued, just in a quieter tone. Mr. Wright gently removed his other hand from the professor's shoulder. "Where are you even going?"

"To the library," he assured the man. "Nothing more."

"Then I'm coming with you."

"Mr. Wright." He didn't allow himself to raise his voice, but it was startling nonetheless. "You have no obligation to do so. Besides, someone should stay and look after the children."

"I can't go back to sleep knowing you're going out there in the dark!"  
"Mr. Wright."

"Sorry..." Down when the volume again. Mr. Wright rubbed at the back of his neck. "I mean, you really trust me to keep quiet and calm while you're out there by yourself? And if I wake up the kids-" He grimaced. "Maya would have my head if she heard me calling her a kid..."

Mr. Wright raised an excellent point, he admitted to himself. If only because he knew how infectious worry could be, he relented. "Mr. Wright, you have made a compelling case."

He was ready to tell to come along, stay close, and be as silent as possible, but something interrupted his thoughts. It was Mr. Wright's eyes again, and how they suddenly flickered and dilated in the night, how the baker lost his focus all at once and suddenly disappeared into his own mind. It almost frightened him.

"Mr. Wright?" He reached out, feeling the gap in their height, and laid a hand on the other's shoulder. "Are you all... there?"

"Huh-" With one last gasp, Mr. Wright snapped back into reality. "What? Sorry, that... I don't know- I feel weird."

"Indeed." He couldn't think of anything else to say to that. He adjusted his hat instead, and bade Mr. Wright to follow him. "Come quickly, then. We haven't a moment to waste."

With a twist of a too-loud lock and a check of the street, the professor and Mr. Wright stole away into the night. It felt like night, even if the light level had not changed from "daytime." Shop windows were closed and no light came from lanterns or doorways. It was still and silent enough for their footsteps to echo as the two broke out into a sprint for the library.

"So is the library open at night?" Mr. Wright asked the professor between heavy breaths.

"I sincerely doubt as much," he answered truthfully. "Our entry methods might take a turn into the untoward."

"You don't mean-"

He allowed himself a moment of snide humor. "I doubt they will punish us as long as we abstain from firebending the door open."

"Don't joke about firebenders, Professor!" Mr. Wright cried out. "That sorta talk will get you in-"

Darkness fell. The two skidded to a halt.

The library stood before them as if it had drained the light from the earth, and framed in its great doors was a figure draped in reds. Dark, blood reds, highlighted in fire bright oranges and yellows, arms clad in gold and face covered by a heavy mask. Wind wicked at its figure even while the air around Layton and Wright was still, as if it were fire itself made into a solid being. Layton held out an arm, keeping Wright behind him even as the baker steadied himself with a hand against the professor's back.

It stood unmoving, watching the two of them. Layton watched. Wright swallowed.

Within a blink it vanished in a curl of fire, and the library door fell open behind it.

Wright swallowed hard enough for Layton to hear it. The professor took a moment before he felt safe enough to move, and forcing himself to relax was akin to breaking himself out of stone.

"What was that?" the baker squeaked.

"A benefactor," the professor answered.

"What do you mean?"

"Someone wants us in that library..." He reflexively reached low, and remembering that Luke wasn't with him, he turned and took Wright's wrist instead. "I shall detail my suspicions to you later. Hurry, Mr. Wright."

"We're walking into a trap..." he replied, but followed nonetheless as the professor gently lead him.

"Perhaps not. If it were, they might have endeavored to keep themselves less conspicuous."

"So it's not a trap because it's too obviously a trap?"

"In a roundabout way of putting it, yes."

"How do you know?"

Safe inside the library, Layton shut the door behind them. "I like to think I have too much experience with these matters-"

A hand shot between the doors, and Phoenix screamed into his hands. Layton flung the door open, ready to-

"Sir Layton! Mr. Wright!" Espella slipped in behind them. "Thank goodness!"

"Espella?" Layton checked outside before shutting the door firmly behind them. "How long have you been there?"

"I woke up!" Espella swallowed to catch her breath, and between pants, she explained. "It felt so quiet, and I woke up and neither of you were there, and neither were your shoes, and I panicked! I followed your tracks, at first, but when I saw the library I knew you must be headed this way."

"You didn't wake up Maya, did you?" Wright asked.

"No! No, I couldn't bring another," she assured them. "The firebenders are out for two companions, not a single traveler."

Layton grimaced. "A soothing thought." He cracked open the door one last time to check. No sign of more followers. He could hear nothing. The books, yes, deep breaths. Find the books.

He gasped and shoved the door closed. "Espella! You know the Story better than all of us, correct?"

"I-" She faltered a bit at that, a hand going up to her chest. "I-I suppose I do, yes."

"Can you find us the most recent book in the library?"

"I think so." She nodded and began to smile. "Yes! Yes, I know so! It will be this way! Follow me!"

"Why the most recent?" Wright asked, tailing behind the two.

"I'm looking for signs of Carmine's arrival. Even if it was not written in the Story-" Layton watched over Espella's shoulder as she scanned the volumes on the shelves. "Then perhaps he made note of it somewhere in the margins."

"The Storyteller writes in the margins? I don't remember that..." Phoenix stroked his chin. "Makes me feel a little better about doodling in my math notes, I guess."

"This one! It's not the very most recent." Espella hefted the big book out of its place and thumped it down on the closest table. "I'm afraid that volume will be with the Storyteller until he's filled it from page to page."

"We'll check at two-week intervals, then, coinciding with the parades."

"Wait a minute, look!" Wright pointed to the pages, to a little gap between the leaf. "There's a bookmark in this one."

"A bookmark?" Espella thumbed to the page and opened the book hurriedly, Layton and Wright on either shoulder, reading.

The bookmark proved to be a sheet of vellum, carelessly creased between the pages and written on in an elegant red script. Modern handwriting, fine cursive, but not the practiced calligraphy of the Storyteller. The writing was smudged in a few places. Wet and fresh, newly written and tucked away to be found in the place they were most likely to look.

"From a long time ago," Layton read aloud, "The ancient flame has been locked in an infinite vault of books, waiting for the awakening." When the sun and moon watching over the sage swap places to show their true form, the door to the past will open. Once a person of perspicacity has fulfilled the challenge, the door will open. Until then, I will wait for the time of awakening."

"They used 'the door will open' twice," said Wright.

"I... I don't understand how this could be here..." Espella whispered in a terrible fright. "Everyone knows better than to tamper with the Story..."

"This is a riddle." A person of perspicacity, was it? If not Carmine before them, it would be him now. The professor scanned the library. The sun and the moon watching over the sage... His eyes fell on the front desk, of the mural above it. The sun and the moon. "And a puzzle!"

"A puzzle?"

"You two, come with me, hurry." The professor dashed to the desk, whipping around it and running his fingers along the seams of the mural. His fingertips were honed for finding the mechanisms of puzzles and traps after many years of archeology, and it was only a matter of moments before he found that the tiles under the sun and moon gave way. "Ah-ha!"

"Professor..." Wright asked behind him. "What's a puzzle?"

"A wonderful thing, Mr. Wright." He found his affordance; a single slot in which a tile could be held whilst he moved the others. "An exercise of the mind and a mystery easily solved."

"Easily?" Wright was closer to him now, he could feel the warmth of his breath over his shoulder. Espella hung back on his other side, watching in silence. "But you can't even take the tiles out!"

"Indeed I cannot," he explained. "But that is part of the thrill of it, is it not? Find any allowance you can exploit, and if the answer does not present itself naturally, then there is simply information missing."

"But why would someone put anything behind a puzzle?" Espella asked.

"Quite frankly, Espella, I believe that whoever hid this information-"

Layton clicked the final piece into place, and stepped back as the wall underneath it slid away into a recess, opening a passage to the three.

"-reserved its location for the chosen few."

"It will undoubtedly be dark inside," Layton told the two. "Stay close to me."

Espella latched onto his arm, and Wright put a hand on his other shoulder. He lead with unsteady footing, both used to and unaccustomed to total darkness. At one point his heel met a stair, and only the iron grip of his two companions kept him from an undignified tumble in to the dark. He made sure to tap his foot down solidly on each step as they descended, and with every one, he was crowded tighter by the other two.

He wondered if the effect was purposeful when his foot fell into the click of a switch instead of a solid floor.

On every side, a flick of a tinder against flint, and then a pillar of fire blasting up stone walls. It singed their skin; Layton was sweating within an instant. Even as the columns snuffed out and the ceiling instead blazed with the light of a thousand torches in chandeliers, nothing prepared him for the site against the far wall. A mural depicting a vicious dragon, wings spread and mouth open wide, breathing fire upon the village of Labyrinthia. Villagers fell upon the ground bathed in flames. Smoke rose in a choking wall, blocking out the moon in the sky.

Before the dragon, the Fire Lord held her hands aloft in triumph, and Layton was momentarily distracted by the fact that the Fire Lord was a woman. Still, grandiose lightswitch or not, they had found their secret. The puzzle had a new piece.

"... are we gonna die?"

"No, Mr. Wright," Layton soothed, "I don't believe we are."

"Okay, good..." Wright pulled an exhausted-looking Espella to his side, where she leaned heavily on him. "Because I feel like my head's trying to pound out of my eyeballs..."

"A drink of water should help with that," he parroted back. Layton was busy scanning the room, and his eyes fell upon the center of the floor, where a scroll lay on a plinth. A massive scroll, ornately decorated in reds and yellows... to pardon the pun, it sent up red flags in Layton's mind. He approached it with caution, measuring his steps carefully.

"Sir Layton, please, be careful..." Espella ground out through clenched teeth. "That's the Grand Grimoire... all of our knowledge of firebenders rests within it."

Without further ado, he opened it... and it was simply a bending scroll. Techniques laid out in steps with their proper names and a short summary of technique beside it. Nothing unusual, except for maybe its comprehensive nature and the fact that, for a scroll, it was very new.

"It is indeed grand..." He scrolled along the document, looking for more hidden scripts and finding none. "Was this where the message was directing us... or were we to see this instead?" He looked back to the mural. "The great fire you told us of?"

"I... I need to go home."

"Espella?"

"I need to go home." Espella pulled away from Wright, clutching her head tight and backing up to the door. "I need to go home I need to go home I need to go home-"

She turned and ran back up the stairs. Wright chased her for a few steps before freezing in his tracks and turning back to Layton. He seemed stuck in fear, and Layton put the scroll back to come to his aide. "Mr. Wright, what is it?"

"I- I can't go with her!" Wright gulped. "That makes us two companions-"

Claire forgive him, but his patience was beginning to wear thin with talk of the Storyteller. "Mr. Wright." Layton firmly pulled down his hat. "I'm not entirely certain of the situation at hand, and I will be the first to admit that. But you must trust me when I say that the Storyteller has no control over you."

"Look, maybe he does!" Wright wailed suddenly. "Maybe! I don't know! I don't know anything anymore! Yesterday I thought I was a normal baker with a normal job and a normal life, and maybe they Storyteller is in charge of it! But here you come with your puzzles and talking about outside the walls and I don't know now! This is- weird! It's really weird! But he doesn't- maybe, I hope- he doesn't control you!"

Wright took a gulp of air and coughed a little, choked on his own words. "And if I go after Espella, I'm just another normal guy out in the middle of the night and at the Storyteller's whims, probably, but when I'm near you... you seem like you know what you're doing. And I feel..." He clawed at the air, searching for the words. "Safer. A lot safer."

Layton, for the life of him, could not find the words. His mouth gaped open at the outburst and still refused to close, and for his part, Mr. Wright was turning a rather ridiculous shade of pink from the ordeal.

"So I... I know Espella will be okay. Storyteller said two companions, and she said she's going home. And I know you'll be okay, because you... You really know what to do, and I don't. At all." Phoenix wiped his brow. "But I want to, so..."

"Mr. Wright..." Layton pulled his hat low. "I am so sorry, to pull you into this situation against your will."

"No, no, i-it's not that I don't want to be here, not really. I-I just want to know the truth. The truth is important, even if it's kind of... overwhelming." Wright looked back to the mural. "And occasionally really scary. But... but if no one looks for it, then..."

His words trailed off, the thought incomplete. Layton held the brim of his hat over his eyes, still, ashamed he'd pulled this innocent man into a mystery obviously too complex for his mind to handle. He'd imposed his own wants for order onto Mr. Wright, he supposed, wanting anyone else to see the illogic in this city other than himself and Luke. It seemed less daunting with an ally, rather than the entire world against him. Even in his clothes from the outside, even with the little cracks in the facade showing through those shining metal buttons and shoes, he was still a citizen of Labyrinthia.

A gentle hand fell on his shoulder. "Hey, professor? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to unload on you like that. I just got scared and then Espella ran off and... It's just been a bad night for everybody, I think. Maybe we should head back home too?"

When he met Wright's eyes, they were soft and forgiving. The fear was gone, and his smile was understanding, if small.

"I still say you can figure this all out." He flashed the professor a little grin. "Let's just go home and try it without the breaking and entering. I mean, can't arrest you for anything as long as you don't firebend, right?"

Layton chuckled once, a dry little laugh and a smile finally back on his lips. "Indeed, Mr. Wright."

"Hey... you can call me Phoenix. If you want to."

"Phoenix Wright..." Layton made his way to the stairs, Phoenix's hand still on his shoulder. "I still find the name too strong for a simple baker."

"Nah, there's nothin' special about me," Phoenix replied with a shy brush of his hair. "Let's go get some sleep and we'll figure this all out in the morning."


	8. Labyrinthia, The Third Day: Early Morn

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

He and the professor came back to pitch darkness and saw Espella's little form sleeping in her trundle, and he couldn't bare the thought of waking her up again. They'd talk about it in the morning, just like he suggested at the library. Sleep came to him in maybe an hour. It felt like an hour. It sounded like the professor fell asleep before him, at least. Phoenix was getting used to having another person in his bed. It was almost easy? Especially when sharing a blanket was a non-issue. Made his toes a little cold in the night, though, although now that he'd seen Espella react to fire, he knew why the fireplace was never lit, poor thing.

It was getting woken up by the doors and windows slamming open and guards rushing the bakery that made the whole night worse. He bolted up from bed, his hand coming down hard square onto the professor's solar plexus. "What- Professor! MAYA WAKE UP, WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

"AAAH!" Maya bolted upright... from Espella's trundle. "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

"Maya?! What are you doing there?!" Wait, was that Maya he'd seen in the bed last night?! Then where was-

Lost in the uproar of noise, Phoenix found himself staring down the blade of a long metal sword, into the face of an angry guard. "We are looking for a Mr. Phoenix Wright, baker's apprentice. Are you that man?"

 _Oh sure, point that thing in a man's face and try to get a reasonable answer,_ he thought to himself. He smiled even as the sword inched closer to his teeth. "I uh- Is agreeing to that statement incriminating?"

"What is the meaning of all this?!" Patty's rolling pin thundered down on a guard's head somewhere in the stairwell. "Get out of my house! We don't have nothin' you want, now scram!"

"The accused has requested a Mr. Phoenix Wright's presence at the courthouse," the guard explained, heedless to his comrade's sound beating just around the corner. "If you do not come with us immediately, then Espella Cantabella will be executed for murder within the hour."

Through the sleep deprivation, through the panic, the words hit down on Phoenix like a hammer on his heart. Everything after that blurred together as he raced to his feet and shoes. The professor urging him to the courthouse. The guards taking him by a shoulder each and all but carrying him out the door. The trip to court was a smudge in his memory, a thumping in his head as he ran, flanked by guards and tailed by Maya. Murder. Murder by firebending, they told him! And Espella had requested him for to defend her!

Because she remembered him doing so already... His head hurt trying to dredge up the memories, any memories of this happening before. Maya's whines of pain and confusion from behind him meant she must be feeling the same way. Why would Espella call him for her defense when he was just a normal baker?

He didn't really come back to his senses until he was sat down and made to drink a cup of water, and when he looked up, Espella was looking right back at him. "Mr. Wright? Are you well?"

He had to check to be sure. Phoenix swept the room and found it kind of horrible. Lit, but dark and musty, the stone bricks reeked of mold and the wood furniture was roughly made and dark just like the black shadows cast against the wall. Hanging on hooks on every surface were weapons; axes and swords, stocks and chains, every kind of violent implement Phoenix could recognize and a few he couldn't. He and his little bunch, Maya and Espella and the professor and his apprentice, looked more out of place than ever with the heavily armored guards standing at either side of a heavy stone door.

At least now he could see it all. He rubbed the last of his headache out of his forehead. "I am now... Where-"

"In the courthouse..." Espella cleared her throat nervously. "I-I mean, I don't mean to interrupt, but- you're here, in the High Court. I sent for the both of you. I'm being put on trial."

"Both of- oh! Oh yeah Maya."

"Don't 'oh yeah Maya' me!" Maya shoved his shoulder and yanked the cup of water out of Nick's hand. "You know we're a joint package!"

"E-exactly!" Espella's face cracked into a small smile. "When I was arrested, I saw the both of you as if an image were painted in my mind, of the two of you standing at my defense, protecting me from..." The smile left her face as the thought escaped. "Something. And I knew I had to call upon you!"

"Your defense..." _Why do those words make me feel... weird?_ No matter how much he rubbed his neck, he couldn't calm himself down. Something in the phrase made his heart race. Something-

"Defender! Accused!" The guards shouted, breaking his concentration. His hands flew up to his ears to buffer the noise. "Court will begin in one minute! State your final peace!"

"In what way will he be defending you?" The professor gently asked Espella. He placed a hand on Phoenix's shoulder. "Is there anything I can do to assist you both?"

"I-it is a delicate matter indeed, Sir Layton..." said Espella. "Mr. Wright must prove in the high court that I am not guilty of firebending."

There it was again, that hammer of feeling. It slammed against the back of his head this time, flashing pictures just behind his eyes. Courtrooms and benches, and a bearded judges. Gavels. Detectives... "Evidence."

Maya jumped in her seat. "Nick?"

The professor turned to him. "Mr. Wright?"

"Evidence... we need proof." Phoenix stood to his feet. Something was there, he could feel it. "Professor, I need proof that Espella can't be a firebender. Something... I don't know what-"

"I have something," Layton interrupted. "Luke, with me. We'll be back as soon as it is in our hands."

"Good." He pulled his coat straight, yanking out a few wrinkles and beating off little puffs of flour. "Maya?"

"I'm ready!" Maya jumped to her feet, flinging her cup of water to the floor. "We can do this! I don't know what this is, but we can do it!"

"Enough lollygagging!"

The guards parted the little crowd, taking Espella by the arms and shoving Layton and Luke out of the room via a smaller exit door. Phoenix braced himself. Maya stomped her feet. _It's now or nothing,_ he thought to himself. _And do I wish it were nothing..._

The guards went first, pulling Espella out before a stadium crowd. Every wall, even the ceiling above them, was built with balconies stacked to the ceiling, and each one was filled to the brim with a separate screaming mob. They hurled every insult, every vile slur that somehow shook Phoenix to his core at her as the brutes hurled her into a cage in the center of the courtroom and slammed the door behind her, and the crowd roared its approval.

"Crush her bones!" they cried. "Bury her! Leave her to rot!"

"Nick," Maya whispered, her voice wavering, "I wanna go back to the bakery."

"You're telling me..."

"Hurry up and take your place at the defense's stand!"

Whichever guard had yelled it, Phoenix and Maya bolted to their table and took their place behind it naturally. Behind them, meanwhile, the mod was jeering and booing, calling for their arrest and execution just like the dirty firebender they were defending-

"Nick," Maya whispered, her voice cutting and angry. "What the hell is wrong with these people?!"

 _Woah, Maya! Language!_ "Keep your voice down, or it'll get worse!"

"But I mean it! This feels seven kinds of wrong!" Maya waved her hands at the scene of the court, from the high-sitting judge to the empty prosecutor's table to the ever-increasing rage of the crowd. "It shouldn't work like this! They already think Espella's guilty, we don't even know what she did or how yet, and they want to lump us in with her as criminals because we're standing up for her? Who does this?! How is this... right?!"

Phoenix nodded, agreeing with every word. His eyes stayed on one tall, decorated guard making his way to the prosecutor's table. "You know the worst part?"

"I've got a weird feeling about what you're about to say..." Maya followed Nick's line of sight. "But go ahead and say it."

"This all feels normal."

"And there it is."

The guard pulled away his uniform helmet and cowl to a shock of red hair, a tanned and well-sculpted face, and a scowl. Such a young one, too; Nick wondered if the prosecutor was even older than Maya. Had to have been, though, because no 17-year-old could be that broadly shouldered, that tall, and stand with that kind of authority.

Maya side-eyed him. "Are you ogling the opposition, Nick?"

"What? No! Maya!" _Weren't we just talking about the kind of talk that can get us in trouble?!_ "I'm just confused! Isn't he a little young to be a prosecutor?"

She shrugged. "Maybe he won the priviledge in a Mr. Labyrinthia pageant."

That made him snort back a laugh. Oh no, he couldn't get funeral giggles, not now!

The gavel rang out over the crowd and finally silenced the mob. "The court is now in session for the trial of Espella Cantabella. Defender?"

"Y-yes!" Phoenix nearly squeaked. "Your Honour."

"Yours is a face I've not seen in any past trials... but no matter." He straightened himself up, putting his gavel down for the moment. "Start by stating your name, Defender."

"Oh! Right, name. My name is Phoenix Wright," he said, "Baker at... the... bakery down by the blacksmith's."

The judge's eyes went wide in surprise, and a little murmur went through the crowd. "A baker?"

"Espella asked me to come, Your Honor..." He admitted with neck rub.

"Way to sell yourself, Nick."

"Maya, you being here makes even less sense."

Maya stomped. "I am your designated support... um... baker!"

The Judge grumped. "At any rate, the results of this trial shall not change."

 _Oh wow, he just comes right out and admits it..._ Phoenix could feel his skin burning, the beginnings of a cold sweat in progress.

"Is the Inquisition ready?"

"The Inquisition stands ready, Your Honour." The prosecutor- the Inquisition?- slammed a heavy gauntlet down upon the table and bent the stone into a sharp blade, pointed directly at Phoenix's head. "I, Zacharias Barnham, am prepared to do battle, My Lord."

 _Battle. Great._ "Um, if I'm lacking an... ability to earthbend, Your Honor, will the court provide it for me?"

Zacharias Barnham put his blade away, settling the gauntlet back onto his arm. "It is the way of the Court Knight, Sir Blue Knight, to always ride with a blade at his side. But perhaps the ways of the bakers are better suited to bread peels than swords."

"Get a smile on your face, Nick," muttered Maya. "You look constipated over there."

"No matter." The Inquisitor shook his head, as if Phoenix was someone to pity. "This trial will be over before you can utter a single objection."

Maya must have felt that, too, the same rush that he did hearing the word, because she suddenly reached over and grabbed his hand. Nick held it, squeezed it tight, letting her know it wasn't just her. Wasn't just him? They shared a look, and that same confused and slightly painful pinch to her eyes let him know. There was something in this situation, these words, that was trying to crack through the headache and reach them both. The crowd was cheering for Barnham, for the death of the firebenders, "Long live the Storyteller" and all that jazz. The initial shock was beginning to wear into grating annoyance.

Barnham presented the situation to the court. Espella had been out at night, with a pack on her back and a lantern in her hand, wandering the abandoned part of town near the Bell Tower. The two victims, a Mr. Robbs and Mr. Muggs, accosted Espella with the intent of theft, as they had been known to do in the past. Acting in self-defense, Espella then firebent a pillar of flames around the two, engulfing them in fire and roasting them alive before attempting to flee the scene. The two were reduced to ashes in the street, and Espella fled the scene before being apprehended by guards a few minutes later. Barnham signalled to a guard in the corner, who hung on the Judge's bench a great printing; a "crime scene sketch", he called it, showing a rendering of Espella seconds before the attack and her attackers as one grabbed an arm and the other brandished a flint dagger.

Taking the stand against Espella, all four of them at once, were the four witnesses to the events: an older man and woman, and a younger lady and lad, all wringing their hands and- wait.

"Wait, why are they all up here at once?" Phoenix asked the judge. "They have to go one at a time!"

"And why should we do that?!" cried the older woman. "We'd be here all night if we did."

"It is so very early in the morning," added the younger lady. "I'd much rather put this firebender to death and go back to my work."

"Hey now, we don't know that she did it! She DIDN'T do it!" Phoenix snapped. "Have a heart!"

Barnham shook his head. "We of Labyrinthia have no heart to spare for the firebenders that would have us all burned to death."

The witnesses told their names and stories: Wordsmith, a "poet" and insomniac who was wandering the square, "watching the stars" despite the distinct lack of sky in Labyrinthia; Mary, a blacksmith and owner of a small goatpher farm; Kira, a flower-seller out on her last round before returning to work; and Knightle, a "prospective" member of the guard weilding a wobbly toy sword and a hand-painted stone shield that he was too weak to lift. Each one swore with every ounce of their strength that they had seen Espella burn her assailants to death.

"This is gonna be a... oh man, there's a phrase for it..." Maya mused. "About something you can't look away from even though it's horrible..."

"We've just got to have faith that Espella didn't do it," he assured her. "And faith in our ability to prove it."

"Oo, look at you bein' a pro, Nick!" Maya clenched her fists to her chest. "We can do this! We just gotta find something to point out!"

The witnesses spoke in turn, each one painting a picture of the crime scene. Wordsmith spoke of the late night air, stagnant as always and smelling of dinner and ale from the local tavern. How Mary and Kira had both seen Espella spout fire at the assailants, how Knightle had seen the flames themselves in the quiet of the night, the only light coming from the crystals on the ceiling. It was easy to see her firebend in the inky blackness-

There! THERE, the light! If Espella had been carrying a lantern, then there! A contradiction!

Phoenix's arm flew out, and from the bottom of his lungs, he screamed, "OBJECTION!"

He remembered everything.

It all came back in a rush. His childhood in Capital City, his parents, his friends, his loves. Mia's murder after his first trial, Maya's framing and the battle they hard-won together. The trip from the Legal League of Attornies, and the young girl Espella Maya and he had saved from immediate arrest on the ship! The hammer on his heart broke through the fog in his brain, and finally he remembered it all!

"Nick..." He could hear Maya over his shoulder. "Did you just feel-"

He slammed his hands down on the desk.

"You did!" she cried. "I know you did! The hands on the desk! Mia would be proud!"

The entire courtroom seemed to recoil from the sudden noise. Phoenix stood straight and threw his finger out to the witness. "Knightle! You testified just now that there was no light source present other than the crystals in the ceiling of the cave! Is that correct?!"

"I-I told you what I saw! Put that finger down, you rude- defender, you!" Knightle wobbled his sword about in a meager attempt to defend himself. "I told you! The fire came from the firebender, nowhere else!"

"Your Honour! If you will please refer to the earlier summary given by Inquisitor Barnham, and to the crime scene sketch on display!" He started to grin. He'd caught them in a contradiction! "He said himself that the accused was seen carrying a lantern!"

"I- agh!" Barnham grit his teeth.

"If the accused was indeed carrying a lantern during the time of the attack, then that must be where the flames originated from!" His point made, grinning like a fool, Phoenix slammed his hands down again. "It is the only logical explanation!"

The silence that greeted him was... uncomfortable. Maya coughed.

"What part of 'firebender' do you not understand, baker?!" Mary shouted.

"And would the two rogues be enguled in such flames in their own woolen garments?" Wordsmith added. "As if they had been bathing in lantern oil?"

Maya quietly quipped, "And thus the trial starts going down the tubes aga- a train wreck! That's what it was!"

"Maya."

"Figures I wouldn't remember what a train was-"

"Maya, please."

The judge tapped his gavel down, quieting the growing rabble. "This courtroom finds the use of firebending in this murder indisputable. It also finds the apprentice baker's attempts to prove otherwise unprofessional and, above all else, futile."

They were out to see him hang! Phoenix beat the table again, Maya thumping her fists down too for added volume. "Look, I won't deny that firebending exists! But Espella's not a firebender and not a murderer!"

Barnham slammed his fist down, and the stone gauntlet combined with his raw strength sent a shockwave through the courtroom. Or maybe he could just feel him earthbending through the floor. "Does the defense have proof of this allegation?!"

"I- um." _Do I?_ "Maya, do we?"

"We don't have a file!" Maya shot back. "I can't look through our notes like usual! We've only got what we came in here with!"

"If the defense has nothing further..." The judge began to raise his gavel. "Then the verdict is clear. We now find the defendant-"

No! Not like this! We've barely gotten a chance, and they're about to sentence Espella to death! There has to be something I can do! Something I haven't seen yet! Phoenix clutched at his forehead and found it cold and sweaty. It would take a miracle-

The courtroom doors slammed open. "Hold it!"

That voice! The court went silent and still.

In through the double doors strode a smaller man, all confidence and practiced steps, a scroll under one arm and a tall hat upon his head.

"Your Honor." Professor Layton straightened up his shoulders and his hat. "I request that the court hold its verdict for a moment longer. I have something I believe will be of use to the defense... a weapon, so to speak."

"Maya," Phoenix breathed. "Remind me to thank the professor when we're out of here with Espella."

"Hardcooore!" Maya cheered. "We're gonna litigate ourselves right out of this courtroom!"

 _Here goes nothing,_ he thought to himself. _Only this time, we're not in this alone._


	9. Labyrinthia, The Third Day: Midday

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

"Order in the court! Er-" The judge faltered a bit as Layton and Luke took Phoenix's right side at the defense's table. "Hang on! What's going on here? This is unprecedented!"

"I need you up to speed and fast." Phoenix leaned down low, speaking in hushed tones to the professor and Luke. "Espella's being accused of firebending two guys to death, and in the middle of the trial, suddenly I got all my memories back."

Maya poked her head around the corner. "And I did too!"

"We're not from here," explained Phoenix. "I'm not a baker and it's not the 100 Year War. My name is Phoenix Wright, and I'm an attorney, and I am really, really confused."

The professor actually smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. "Then my first instincts were correct. You are indeed not a native of this place."

"Is the defense quite through with wasting the court's time?" Barnham slammed a fist down on his table. "This case is straightforward and simple! There is no further evidence to submit and no room in the case for discussion!"

"Mr. Wright," Layton asked quietly. "You are not a bender yourself, correct? That much is still true?"

Phoenix owlishly blinked at the question. "Well, it is, but-"

"Then I'm afraid I must raise a point myself, if I may."

"Uh- sure! If you think you have something."

Layton cleared his throat. "Your Honour. I have a question to ask of the prose-"

Phoenix cut in quietly. "They're called 'inquisitors' here."

"Of the Inquisition."

"And who is this person?! Why are there so many unknown faces in the court today?!" The judge cried. "You! Top hat! State your name and professor for the court before you address the public!"

Luke and Maya quickly took to the side, swapping notes and whispering to each other. The professor adjusted his hat and straightened up. "My name is Hershel Layton. I am an archeologist and a professor."

"Pfft, a 'professor'," Barnham scoffed. "I have never heard of such a vocation."

"Which would explain a lot in this town..." Phoenix mumbled. Layton quietly shifted his weight.

"What exactly does a 'professor' profess, Sir Top Hat?" Barnham sneered.

Layton pulled his brim low. "The truth."

Maya made a little squeal of delight. Luke grinned and explained, "Just watch! He'll show this whole court what-for, just you wait!"

"Luke, calm yourself." Layton gently laid down the massive scroll and rolled it just slightly open. "I have heard of the Inquisition's claims that the defendant, Ms. Espella Cantabella, used firebending in order to murder her assailants. However, we have yet to determine what method of firebending."

The courtroom shook and murmured, and Phoenix asked, "Method?"

"Surely the Inquisition is aware that firebending, like any method of bending, is a varied practice. Certain techniques are only capable of being used by a powerful practioner of the art." With one hand on a handle, Layton rolled the other end of the scroll to Luke and let the pages sit in plain view of Phoenix and the court. "The defense would like to request that the witnesses describe how the murder took place."

Barnham was grimacing, and the prosecu-quisiton grimacing probably meant they were on a good lead. The crowd's frantic back-and-forth settled into a tolerable rumble in the stands, and the judge looked to be deep in thought.

"The court finds the defense... confusing. But within the bounds of reason." The judge's gavel rang out. "The witnesses are to elaborate upon their testimony."

"Wouldn't have thought of that..." Phoenix admitted to Layton. _The professor really knows his stuff..._

"Let us see where the testimony leads us before we consider this a victory, Mr. Wright."

"Right."

The witnesses scrambled to shout their testimony over each other before the judge smacked his gavel down and made them decide on a turn order.

"Twas a pillar of flame what did in the crooks!" said Wordsmith.

"It whirled all around them!" said Mary. "Swallowed them both up like goatphers on a spit!"

The professor and Luke scanned the scroll as the witness testimony continued. Kira explained, "It moved around them in a circle, and engulfed them both!"

"Hold it!" Phoenix pressed. "How can one little firebender, if it was Espella- which it isn't- make a column of fire powerful enough to reduce two grown men to ashes?"

"Far be it from me to question the abilities of these wicked, tricksy warmongers!" Kira shouted. "Those of the Fire Nation work in mysterious and evil ways!"

Maya grimaced. "You know, now that I have my memory back, all this anti-Fire Nation talk's really starting to piss me off."

"I-if that's the case, why target Espella?!" Phoenix gestured to Espella, poor quiet thing still in the cage. "She doesn't even have black hair! She doesn't look Fire Nation in the least!"

"The baker should learn to hold his tongue in matters he doesn't understand." Barnham crossed his arms grimly. "Surely you are aware of the Crisis."

"The... Crisis?" Like on that show with the cars, or...?

"About how the Fire Nation is sending spies of all races into our fair city," Barnham explained. "Flame-wielding murderers and saboteurs disguised as Water Tribals, or even Earth Kingdom colonials, accepted into our fold as refugees only to turn their violence upon us."

"Nick, this has crossed over from 'kind of weird' into '24 hour news network' levels of scary." Maya stepped away from the bench and slightly behind Phoenix. "I want out of here fast."

"We're working on it," Phoenix shushed her. "Right, Professor?"

Layton only nodded, saying nothing and keeping his eyes down on the scroll. Phoenix recognized that distance and gave the professor a small nudge to his shoulder. He was there for him, no matter what was troubling him.

"I saw it! The flames spouting from her hand!" Knightle pantomimed a swift punch forward. "Kapow! And the flames kicked up-"

Layton's finger tapped down onto the scroll. "Here."

Phoenix scanned the page. That was it! "OBJECTION! Your Honour, we have here on the table the Grand Grimoire, a firebending scroll containing every method of firebending known to... well, you guys, I suppose."

"THE Grand Grimoire?!" The judge and the crowd all gasped. "But how did you get it out of the archive?"

"Convincing Ms. Ridelle was not an easy task," Layton vaguely answered.

"This page details a firebending technique called 'The Butterfly Kick'. A firebender whirls around to create a pillar of fire around them-" He slammed his desk for effect. "With their feet! Espella could not have recreatd the technique with her hands-" He pointed to the crime scene sketch. "Because her arms were held by the assailants!"

"Objection!" Barnham shouted. "That is easily dismissable! Surely, the firebender shook off the victims and then was able to use the technique!"

"OBJECTION!" Phoenix could feel the blood pumping in his veins now! "I again draw your attention to the crime scene sketch!"

"The sketch, the sketch, the sketch!" Kira wailed. "Why do you keep going on about the sketch?! There's nothing important on it, anyway!"

"There is indeed!" Phoenix slammed the desk with his palms! _Boy, my hands are starting to hurt._ "Espella's lantern is hanging off of her wrist-"

"What lantern?! What are you even talking about?!" Kira slammed her hands on the witness stand. "I see no such lantern!"

"Young lady..." Wordsmith gestured to the sketch. "It is plainly visible."

"Point it out to me, then, if it's so plainly visible!"

"Mr. Wright..." Layton whispered. "Watch her eyes."

Phoenix leaned over the professor's shoulder, watching and listening. Kira had turned her back on the courtroom to look over the crime scene sketch. She took a step towards the judge's stand, and then another, while the other witnesses were angrily pointing out the lantern dangling from Espella's right wrist.

It dawned on Phoenix. "... she can't see."

"Not perfectly," Layton quietly spoke back.

"Think we can get her testimony dismissed?"

"It is a possibility."

Maya put her head over the professor's other shoulder, causing the smaller man to shrink away from her. "What are we whispering about?"

Phoenix shoved her head mock-threateningly. "Maya, what are you doing?!"

"If the witnesses are through!" The judge knocked his gavel down. "Honestly, all this squabbling over a simple witch trial!"

"So- so I lost my glasses a few days ago!" Kira protested. "I can get along fine without them! I don't need bifocles to sell flowers!"

"Your Honor, the defense calls into question the validity of Miss Kira's testimony!" Phoenix put forth. "With all due respect, her eyesight seems to be failing. How can she even be sure Espella had a lantern on the night in question?"

"Because I'm the one that reported it, sonny!" Mary pounded the witness stand. "And a fine one it was! One of my best works, with what little metal I have available!"

"Wait- Hold it! What do you mean 'what little metal'? You're a blacksmith!"

"Your Honour," Barnham smirked, "With all due respect, the defense's knowledge of his birthplace seems woefully inadequate. Even the refugees among us know that metal is a strictly controlled substance."

"Indeed," the judge agreed. "The Fire Nation uses gongs and bells to signal to one another. All metal made and recycled in Labyrinthia is kept careful track of by our guards."

"Oh for crying out loud-" Maya let her head fall to the desk.

"If that's the case, then where is the lantern that Espella was carrying?" Phoenix asked. "We can see whether or not Espella dropped it in the struggle! If it's in one piece, then Espella couldn't have firebended the other two!"

The court went awkwardly silent.

"We're getting all the bad flavors of silence today," Maya said into the table.

"It's like a game of Bean-boozled..." Luke quipped back.

"The Inquisition..." Barnham coughed. "Cannot find the lantern at this time."

Maya leaped up and pointed, shouting "HA!" before Phoenix could wrestle her hand back down to her side.

"Do I hear you correction, Barnham?" The judge thumped his gavel into his palm. "This crucial piece of evidence is missing?"

"It... is, m'lord." Barnham's entire face was dour and scowling like a man twice his age. He almost looked embarrassed. "Our failure to produce this important piece is most embarrassing."

"Well... I suppose it happens to all of us at least once." The judge shrugged. "You are forgiven for this slight mistake."

Layton's fist was quivering against the table. Phoenix sighed. Oh, I've been there, Mr. Layton... He put his hand over the professor's and gave it a little pat before pulling his hand back.

"The injustice of it all..." the professor whispered.

"I know, I know... this is just like one of your puzzles though, right?" Phoenix remembered that night in the library, the professor's hands passing over the mural, searching for weak points and cracks to exploit. "We work with what we're given, and the right answer finds its own way out."

"Right... you are absolutely right." Layton tipped his hat. "Mr. Wright."

Phoenix smiled back. "I'm Wright all the time."

Maya nudged Phoenix hard in the ribs. "Stop flirting and listen. This sounds important."

Phoenix felt a blush burning all the way up his neck, but he did pull his attention back to the witnesses. They'd gotten into a squabble again, this time debating how a firebender could burn a metal lantern to ashes too, to get rid of evidence. Only Mary seemed to be on the side against the ridiculousness, saying that a lantern that lightweight and well made could be easily tucked into the folds of an apron and carried away, and it wasn't worth it to destroy such a valuable piece of... wait a minute.

"Hold it! Miss Mary!" said Phoenix. "You seem to know a lot about the logistics of taking a lantern, tucking it away into an article of clothing, and carrying it away."

Mary raised a finger... and said nothing. She cradled her face in her hand... and said nothing. She opened her mouth...

"... guards!" Barnham slammed his fist down. "By order of the Inquisition, search Mary's house and place of business for this lantern!"

"Ah-ha! Point goes to Medium Maya!" Phoenix allowed her to gloat with a proud smile. "Heres to me for listening while you two were whispering at each other!"

"How can you do it, Maya?" Luke asked. "How can you pay attention? All these people against you, trying to make you look bad, acting like you're dumb, and trying to keep the truth from you-"

Maya interrupted with a weary glance to Nick, who returned it. "Average day at the office, am I right?"

"No, I am," Nick joked back with no humor. "And we're actually doing a lot better than usual."

"Cor!" Luke tugged his hat. "Being an attorney must be a terrible job."

"It kind of is. But you don't do it for the glory." Phoenix checked on Espella. She met his eyes and gave him a weak, but hopeful smile. He smiled back and gave her a little wave. "You do it to protect the people who need it the most."

While his eyes were up, Phoenix locked gazes with Inquisitor Barnham, who seemingly was trying to read him. Maybe he was being seismic sensed, or maybe just being looked over, but there was something haunting the young man's gaze. Phoenix tried to smile for him, although he could feel that it was a little forced and lopsided. The man turned his gaze away, leaving Phoenix feeling like a heel.

"Ah-HAAAA! This is it! This is the decisive evidence!" Knightle cheered as the guards returned, one set holding a bag and another one holding a huge sheet of paper. "While the firebender-supporting rabble were having their little pow-wow, we've gotten new proof! Another crime scene sketch, exactly as I remember seeing it!"

To Phoenix's horror, the guards pulled from the sack a broken lantern. It must have been dropped in the struggle, and even now it was still dripping little remnants of foul-smelling lantern oil.

"Oh no!" Maya gasped. "There goes a leg to stand on..."

Along the back wall, Knightle's court sketch went up; Espella retreating from the criminals, backlit by fire shooting from her hand while the victims fearful faces were highlighted.

Professor Layton slammed the desk. "Objection!"

"The hat-maker is objecting now?!" Barnham raged to the sky. "What is this court coming to?!"

"There is a contradiction in this very image! Your Honour, if I would draw your attention to the accused, specifically..." He pulled his hat low. "Her long cloak."

"Ah, yes. Espella is scarcely seen about town without it," the judge agreed. "What of it?"

"The defendant is still wearing the cloak, as she was at the time of the murder. If Espella indeed used firebending to kill her assailants..." With another slam of the desk and a powerful point, Layton exclaimed, "Then her face would be illuminated from inside the cloak!"

"But that- that would mean that-" Barnham recoiled as if struck. "Agh!"

"Of course!" Phoenix's heart raced. He could follow it, and if Barnham could, then the judge could too! "The light source, the fire, is coming from behind Espella! My client is not a firebender! She is being framed as one!"

It was like a bomb had gone off. Everyone in the courthouse screamed in protest all at once, calling for Phoenix's immediate execution for even daring to suggest the idea of it. Not even the judge's gavel could be heard above the stomping feet and shrieks. For the first time in the entire trial, the defense and prosecution agreed on something: to cover their ears and wait for the noise to die down.

The professor winced through the volume. "I apologize for my moment of indelicacy!"

"If they hate the sound of the truth this much," Phoenix countered, "Then they really need to hear it!"

"If we can hear anything at all after this!" Luke finished.

Maya only wailed, "WHAT?!"

"But the lantern is still broken!" Kira protested. "I-isn't it?"

"I only took it back to repair it!" Mary protested.

"That doesn't change the fact that Espella is a firebender!" Knightle protested.

Wordsmith protestingly spun around in circles at the witness stand.

"Order! Order!" the judge demanded. "This- this has never happened in all my years of judging... Never before has a crime been so... ambiguous!"

"Your Honor, the defense has a request to make. Do you have a map of the area of town where the murder was committed?"

"Er- yes, of course. The city planners-"

"The defense requests a copy of that map! And that the witnesses and guards mark the locations of everyone involved in the crime!"

"Oh yeah, maps of the crime scene! I knew we were missing something!" Maya was practically bouncing on her toes. "Now it's starting to feel like home!"

A map was produced, carefully measured and marked, then put on display on the judge's table. As Phoenix expected, all of the witnesses were a good distance from Espella, but only one could potentially be called "behind" her; Kira, who was tucked a ways away into a back alley along the open boulevard. Even for an experienced firebender, that was quite a length to cross. She couldn't have bent a flame from all the way over there...

"Oi!" called a voice from the gallery. "You've got it all wrong! You've left out one person!"

Barnham nearly flinched. "What?! Who?"

Barnham did flinch when the voice in question physically leaped down from the balcony and landed face-first onto the witness stand. The only thing on his that stayed completely upright was the flagon of beer in his hand.

"... me!"

That sound had to have been Maya laughing, and that bump against his leg her falling onto the floor. He couldn't really tell. Phoenix was too busy dropping his head onto the professor's shoulder with a loud groan. It was getting worse. The gallery was starting to laugh. Luke was starting to laugh. The judge, thank goodness, wasn't laughing but his gaping fish face was making it hard not to laugh.

"Your Honour, what is this farce?!" Barnham's face was getting as red as his hair. "This witness did not come forward for questioning!"

"I wouldn'a! I was asleep!" The new witness was wiggling his way behind the witness stand even as they spoke. "But I'm Emeer Paunchenbaug, I'm awake now, and I'mma turn this case around!"

"This trial... has taken a turn for the odd," Layton mused.

Phoenix gathered the strength to pull himself off the professor's shoulder. "Remind me to tell you about the parrot and the metal detector."

"Er-"

"I was there! I saw that murder happen!" The man exclaimed. "I saw that girl shoot fire at me and then run for the hills!"

"You..." Phoenix's heart froze over. "You what?!"

Emeer raised his flagon in triumph. "She did! Ran straight into me! Smacked into me with a 'snap' and then made off into the night while I was unconscious."

Phoenix and Layton shared a look. _With a snap?_

"Your Honour," Barnham shouted, "This man is clearly inebriated-"

"Right there! Next to the tavern!"

Emeer slapped his hand down right next to Kira's marker. "Right in the alley as I was leaving!"

The gallery gasped. Maya squealed into her palm and started slapping Phoenix's arm, and the professor took in a sharp breath and tugged his sleeve.

"Course I was a tad alleviated at the time..."

"It's 'inebriated', you buffoon!" Kira hissed. "Why is everyone gasping?"

"Your Honor." Phoenix swallowed hard. This was never easy. "The defense, in light of recent evidence, moves to convict the witness Kira for firebending."

"Wh- what?! You can't do that!" Kira wailed. "You couldn't!"

"Indeed, Sir Blue Knight..." Barnham's teeth gritted, his shoulders tense, he nearly growled to Phoenix. "You have no proof."

"Indeed, Sir Blue Knight..." The judge solemnly stated. "Nothing but the work of this drunken reprobate."

Emeer looked a bit taken aback by that. "Oi! I resent that! I'm a pillar of the community!"

"What?! Nick, why would you-"

"Look, I'm grasping at straws here!" Phoenix yanked at his hair while Emeer emptied the last of his flagon into his gaping mouth. "All we need is that last piece of evidence that puts Kira at the crime scene and-"

Emeer suddenly choked, and with a horrible noise spit out a mouthful of beer and one half of a pair of glasses. The court gasped, but none louder than Kira, as he pour out the rest of his flagon directly onto the table to produce the other half. Gold-rimmed, round bifocles, lying in plain sight, with the color drained from Kira's face.

"Guards." Barnham straightened up. "Release Espella Cantabella."

"Wait- wait, you can't do this!" The witnesses ran from the table as the guards rushed in. Espella's cage flew open. Espella darted to the defense's stand to hide behind Phoenix as the guards threw Kira into the box in her place. Through it all, Kira screamed. "You can't do this! She was at the Bell Tower! Everyone knows what happened there! She's the Fire Lord, I tell you! You can end all this, just take her instead!"

"Woah hang on-" Suddenly, there were swords in his face yet again, this time blocking Phoenix and the table from the center of the courtroom. The massive guards formed a human wall around the center of the courthouse. "Hang on a minute what's going on?!"

"I'll admit it! I saw an opportunity and I took it! I was compelled, and you all know why!" Kira's arms reached out from the cage. "Whoever kills the Fire Lord ends the war! Send her into the earth and we can all be free to see the sky again!"

"Wait they're doing the execution now?!" Phoenix pushed against the guard's swords, Layton at his side struggling to get through. "Woah, you can't do that! There's a process to this- there's children present-!"

The judge's gavel came down. The floor opened up below Kira, as if in slow motion, and the cage started to fall into an earthbending maw of gnashing stones and crushing crystals. Kira's face bareley registered the fall at first, only starting to show the horror on her face when the ground left her feet.

Phoenix could only reach out- he only wanted Espella safe, he hadn't wanted this!- and try to push Kira away.

A blast of air knocked the cage against the far wall before sending it down into the cave, and from the horrified screams around him to the sudden roar of wind in his ears, Phoenix realized that it came from him.

Phoenix pushed against the guards and missed. He kicked off the ground and didn't come back down, instead flipped over and onto his back by a whirlwind around him and kept hovering, spinning, while his coat whipped at his skin. The guards backed away in a panic while Maya grabbed his arm and tried to pull him down even while hair smacked into her face.

"The Avatar! He's the Avatar!" Barnham threw his cowl and helmet back over his head. "Guards! Apprehend him, quickly!"

"Luke, quickly!" Layton shouted. "Get us out of here!"

"Excuse me, Mr. Wright!" Phoenix saw a familiar movement out of the corner of his eye; within seconds, Luke was balanced on top of an airball and throwing himself onto Phoenix's belly. As if today couldn't get any worse, and with an almost physical blow to his dignity, Phoenix felt himself behind shoved out of the courthouse doors like a wheelbarrow by this little half-pint airbender while Espella, the professor, and Maya ran after him.

They had the advantage of complete and utter chaos on their side. They gained a fast lead, one they wouldn't keep if Maya kept screaming, "Where do you get off being an airbender?! The both of you! Explain yourselves right now!"

"Mr. Wright I feel I must congratulate you on your newly awakened airbending," Layton spoke over Maya, "But I feel that perhaps we should keep a low profile for a while!"

"Oh yeah! Low profile!" Phoenix shouted back as a chicken got caught up in his air current and tossed over his head. "Great idea!"

Luke winced. "Sorry, Mr. Chicken!"

"I-I know where we can hide!" Espella choked out. "But we need food from the bakery! Please, Mr. Wright, calm yourself down! I-if you can, that is!"

"How am I supposed to-" In his gesticulating, he guessed he broke the circle of air keeping him afloat, because the next second he and Luke smashed into the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Espella skirted past them into the bakery's front door. "Thank you!"

Layton came to a stop just before Luke and Phoenix, swallowing deep gulps of air. "I cannot imagine how-"

"Less talk!" Phoenix bounced back to his feet, taking Luke and Layton by an arm each and pulling them inside. "We're going on the run, we need food! Maya, pack fast!"

"Packing fast!" Maya rushed in behind him, gathering any small food she could and tucking them into her kimono sleeves. "This was way easier at the buffet!"

"D-does this happen regularly to you two?" Layton stuttered as Phoenix hurriedly grabbed a bag that Espella offered him.

"The airbending? No! That's new! Great new experience! Highly recommended!" Phoenix wasn't sure he was being sarcastic enough, but damn he was trying. "Maya and I just need to travel in a hurry a lot."

"GUARDS!" Maya shrieked and ran from the door. "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE AGAIN!"

"Stand back, Mr. Wright!" Luke dashed in front of Phoenix and grabbed a short-handled peel from the oven, and before Phoenix could say another word, the guards were at the door.

It was a flurry of motion. The first guards at the door were gone within a blink as Luke swiped the peel at their feet, blasting them out into the street with a bellow of air. That same gust blew half the inventory of the bakery onto the floor, including a massive flour sack which was, of course, open and which, of course, promptly exploded in a cloud of white powder. The second set of guards, blinded by the cloud, were swiftly knocked on top of the first two by another sweep from Luke.

The third set of guards earthbent the entire front wall of the shop out onto the street, and without thinking, Phoenix grabbed a long-handled peel and swung with abandon. The flat end collided with a guard's head, and the wake of the air current behind it sideswept the rest of the guards down like a pack of dominos. The only one that managed to stay upright was obviously Barnham in his full regalia, sealed to the ground by earthbending his feet into it.

"Hurry, run! RUN!" Layton hooked an arm around Maya and ran after Espella, who had already retreated into the distance. "Don't fight them, just run!"

Luke bent himself onto an airball and followed, and Phoenix headed up the rear with every third step hitting the air instead of the ground. "Where are we going?"

"Just follow me!" It was all that Espella would give them, even as they hit the wall of Labyrinthia and she disappeared into a door with a nearly invisible seam. She slammed it behind them, bathing the tunnels behidn in near-complete darkness, and she still ran like the guards would be right behind them, so they followed.

The only thing to follow for a while was the wall and footfalls where Espella, the only barefoot one of the bunch, would skid to a halt and turn sharply. After a few minutes of sprinting, one hallway shined with the light of a ceiling crystal, and Espella came to an abrupt stop beneath it. The all stopped, breathed, just tried to collect themselves. Maya sat straight down before the professor helped her back up to her feet.

"Don't. Not after running," he plainly explained. "Leg cramps."

"You... both airbend." Espella choked out. "You AND Luke!"

"Yeah, why didn't you tell us?!" Maya shouted.

"Well, I couldn't at the time!" Luke shouted back. "You were both hypnotized! What if you'd panicked like they all did?!"

"YOU... make an excellent point..." Maya gasped. "Man we were dumb. Well what about you, Nick?!"

"I don't know!" Nick pulled at his hair. "I've never done that before! I didn't think people still GOT awakened airbending-ing'd- AAGH!" He sat down hard, and again, Professor Layton made him stand up. "My head... this isn't even a brainwashing headache, it just hurts..."

"Brain... washing?" Espella pulled her cloak tight over her shoulders. "What's that?"

"It- it's what made us think we were from here, when we're not." That's the best Phoenix could explain it in the fewest amount of words. Fewest? Least? His head. All that lack of sleep and the stress from the trial was catching up to him. "Something is trying to take our memories out of our heads."

"Is- is that what happened to me?" Espella gasped. "With the man Sir Layton spoke of?"

"It is... entirely possible," Layton admitted. "We must probe the matter further."

Luke stomach growled and echoed in the cave.

Maya pulled out tiny bread rolls and scones and passed them out to the group. "Good thing I pack fast."

The five of them sat, all against the same side of the tunnel. They made an odd grouping, Espella on the far end with Phoenix, dispassionately eating at her side. Layton on Phoenix's other side, holding a scone but not eating it, while Luke tore into a loaf of nut bread and Maya, on the other end, trying to eat a filled pastry without getting the filling on her kimono, in the dark.

"Why..." Espella asked the room, "Would they be so insistent on having me... instead of listening when you spoke, Mr. Wright?"

"I don't... maybe they wanted to be right more than they wanted the truth." He put his food down, too winded to eat... no pun intended. "That happens a lot."

"Something about this town's hiding a big ol' secret," Maya assured them. "No doubt about it. But we're gonna find out what it is, aren't we, Nick?"

"I was gonna settle on finding a way to escape..." Nick joked. "But that works too."

"Yeah! Because that's what we are! Fighters for the truth!" Maya cheered into the dark. "No more secrets, no more lies! We solve this town, or else... we dies! My rhyme fell apart."

"I'd rather not die in here!" Luke protested through a mouthful of bread. "But I do agree, we have to figure out why they think it's the past! And why they're killing people!"

"Oh jeez, I'd put that out of my mind. Thanks for reminding me, Luke..."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wright."

"I'm not sure about any of this, myself..." Espella admitted. "It's all very confusing, and at times, it frightens me. But I do know, out of anyone I've ever met, all of you are the truest and braest heroes I have ever seen. I know that whatever truth you come to... I shall believe it! With all my heart! Thank you, all of you! Maya and Luke."

Maya waved off the praise and simultaneously asked for more of it, while Luke hide his blush behind bread.

"Mr. Wright-"

"You know, you can all call me Phoenix," he chuckled. "We've hit that point."

"And Sir Layton."

"Hey, how come he gets to be a 'sir'?" Phoenix nudged the professor's side. He'd been so quiet, and it was worrying him. "Professor? Are you okay?"

The professor took a long, painful breath. Luke winced and put down his food, as if he knew what was coming. The professor gathered up his strength to speak, not looking at any of them. "I am trusting all of you with a painful truth."

He rolled his hands in a tight circle, and with a flick of his wrists, Professor Layton held a ball of fire in the palms of his hands.

Espella gasped and jumped back into Phoenix's chest, but other than that, not a sound. All their faces were clear in the firelight; Luke's look of pained understanding, Maya's confusion dawning into dread, and Espella's terror. Only the professor's was hidden, his mouth a schooled straight line but his eyes hidden by the brim of his hat. Phoenix just felt... everything at once, all of the memories of the past few days rushing back to him in a painful clump like noodles balling up in his throat.

"Oh no..." Maya moaned. "All those things they were saying... that _we_ were saying, Nick."

"Prejudices die hard in the rural States..." The professor spoke evenly, but his voice was rough with effort. "It was... nothing I had not heard before."

Phoenix leaned over, past Espella, and pulled the professor into a hug.

His fire snuffed out, but Phoenix felt Maya joining him on the other side, and then Luke snuggling in from underneath. This was something that needed hugging out, he decided. Nothing else he could say seemed... big enough to soothe that hurt. It hurt him down to his soul just hearing it in court today, and then Layton admitting that he'd heard it for... however long. He couldn't picture it. He didn't want to.

Another set of arms wound their way over the professor's shoulders. Phoenix sniffed. _I'm proud of you, Espella._

"This is..." Layton forced out. "Ungentlemanly."

"Nuh-uh. If Edgeworth couldn't get one, then I'm making doubly sure you get one." He squeezed tighter. "Big hugs."

"All night if we have to!" Maya agreed.

"Or all morning, rather..." Espella pulled away and dug into Phoenix's pack. "We won't be able to safely walk about during the daytime. We should probably sleep until night, and then do what else we need to do."

Phoenix had a lot of questions about how she knew that, but it felt inappropriate to ask at the moment. The lack of sleep, the food, the stress, the airbending... the morning. The night. The after-sleep, that's when he would deal with it.

"Professor? Could you please..." Espella carefully chose her words. "Light the cave for us again?"

With the smallest of smiles, Layton held a light in his hands while Espella set up a odd contraption that she called "an alarm clock." She put it a good distance away from the others and spread her cloak out over the floor for a bed. It was only big enough for three, barely, so Phoenix and Layton put the children in the middle and took a space on either end before finally settling down to sleep.

Sleep didn't come to him immediately. Phoenix stared at the faintly glowing crystal in the dark, replaying memories in his head. He was just happy they were still there, for all he knew. Never felt happier about it, in a bittersweet kind of way.

"You holding up okay, Professor?"

"You are still awake as well." It wasn't an answer, just an acknowledgement. "I apologize for my emotional display."

"Please. You're fine." Phoenix rolled onto his side to speak to the professor easier. "Hey, when I was... not me, I said some cruel things... I'm really sorry. That doesn't make up for it, but-"

"You... are one of the few." The professor's body moved in the dark, and while Phoenix's couldn't really see, he assumed Layton was on his side as well. It was hard to tell which was was front with that hat. "I appreciate it more than I can put into words. Indeed, I have something to apologize for myself. I'm afraid I misjudged you, terribly, after our expedition to the library. You are a man of astute wit and keen observation, and you deserve your due credit."

"When we get out of here, I want that in writing, because you're the only person on earth who's said that about me."

"More people should."

He was blushing. It's a good thing the professor couldn't see. "I wouldn't have made it without your help... neither would Espella, so... thank you. Again."

"A gentleman always helps those in need," said Layton. "No matter the circumstances."

"Hey, that sounds like my job description. Except sometimes I get paid to do it."

Layton chuckled, and Phoenix's heart jumped up into his throat.

"Then it is settled."

Layton's hand reached out and lit the tunnel with a tiny yellow fireball. Espella, Luke, and Maya slept between the two of them, and over their heads, Layton held his hand out to Phoenix. "If we were to pool our strengths, there is no doubt we can crack the mystery surrounding this strange place. It's time to write our own story, dictated by our own path and written with our own hands!"

"Man, you've got a way with words..." Wait what was he doing? Phoenix got up on his elbow and reached a hand out to shake the professor's. "I agree! Let's bring this town down!"

His fingers hovered just over the fire before Layton snuffed the light and took his hand tightly. It was warm.


	10. Labyrinthia, The Third Day: Night

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

"It is imperative for us to gather information about Labyrinthia, and the Storyteller, if we are to escape this place."

The morning had begun with flurry of action. Phoenix awoke in a panic and had lifted himself into the air in his shock. Layton wrangled Phoenix by the leg, Luke had calmed Espella, Phoenix had struggled with weightlessness as he lifted the two of them in the air, Maya had soothed Espella as Luke pulled them both to the ground. It had taken everyone several minutes simply to calm down and take stock of where they were again after the strange events of last night. Espella had, with no small wonder towards herself, even acknowledged Layton as a Firebender with no fear or prejudice. It was all very confusing, as Phoenix made clear from the moment he recollected the trial before.

Priorities had to remain in times of stress, however. Layton pulled his little group into a huddle and lit their faces with a ball of flame in his palm and issued his edict. "Something has its grip over the minds of the people, and so long as we are outside its influence, it is our duty to uncover it."

"That's a good thought and all," Phoenix pointed out. "But where do we start? Those books at the library were fake, weren't they? That's one lead gone."

Layton adjusted his hat. "True. Not all of them were fake, however, and I feel as if finding the right book is instrumental in piecing together the events of this strange case."

"Is the 'right book' the one where that Carmine guy showed up?" Maya asked. "Espella, do you still not remember him?"

"Not at all..." Espella wrung her hands, eyes mindful of the fire. "But it seems... logical? That it would have happened recently. If that is the case, then the book would be in the hands of the Storyteller still."

"You obtained it from him once before," Layton pointed out. "Could you do it again?"

"Possibly?" She pulled her cloak more snugly against her shoulders. "But if I were to try, I would have to go alone. It wouldn't be safe to put any of you in... that kind of situation."

"That's still really vague," Maya added. "What if that book's nearly full already?"

"We'd need a starting point," Luke finished. "Something we could find easy and then search from there."

Layton nodded in agreement. Something easily tracked down, probably an event in the main "story" that could be looked up rather than notes in the margin. "Espella, when was the last trial before we arrived?"

"Well... there was a case, but it never made it to the courts." The young lady's gaze went to the middle distance as she tried to recollect every little scrap of knowledge. "About a month ago, when the Bell Tower re-appeared, a good friend of my father's was found murdered in his home."

The statement, and the casual ease of which she said it, sent a jolt through the huddle.

"Cor!" Luke gasped. "What did it say in The Story about it?"

"It... didn't." Espella clutched at her hands again, pulling until her knuckles were nearly white. "It is the only murder in 100 years that was not foretold."

"Kira said something about the Bell Tower during the trial, too!" added Maya.

"We have our first lead!" Phoenix cheered, and the Professor pulled his hat low.

"Luke, I must entrust Phoenix to you."

Maya and Espella tittered at the face Phoenix pulled. "Wait-" the lawyer interjected. "That's supposed to be the other way 'round, right?"

"I'm afraid not, Phoenix." Layton explained quietly, delicately. "I believe I should be able to make use of my relative anonymity in this village to investigate. But so long as Labyrinthia knows you are an airbender..."

"Oh..."

"And a novice one, at that."

Phoenix flinched, and Layton regretted his choice of words. Luke, as always, was there to pick up where he was faltering, and stepped forward with a tip of his little cap.

"Don't worry, Professor! I'll get him airship-shape within the afternoon!"

"Actually, according to my hourglass..." Espella pulled the tool out of a pouch on her belt to emphasis. "I believe it is past midnight... it will be darkest night, so to speak."

"Then let's do it!" Maya cheered so loud it echoed in the cave. The huddle broke just to give her exuberance room to breathe. "Sneaking around in the night, gathering clues, sneaking past the guards-"

Phoenix chuckled. "You used 'sneaking' twice."

"Let's make it happen!" Maya threw her hand into the center of the huddle. "Go Team Nonfiction!"

"Yaaay team," said Phoenix with much less enthusiasm but a smile nonetheless. "While me and Luke get to stay in a cave, playing in the dirt."

"I look forward to seeing how your skills have improved once I return, Phoenix." Layton put his hand into the center with Maya's, and he grinned as Luke's little palm landed on the back of his hand. "We have the opportunity to break this dreadful sequence, to write our own stories with our own hands!"

"And then use that hand to shoot air in people's faces!"

With a last laugh and Espella and Phoenix's hands topping the stack, the party broke off. Luke and Phoenix took up the discarded peels from the floor. Luke's corrections echoing in the halls behind them, Espella lead Layton and Maya out into the town.

By the time Layton had gathered both his nerve and the girls, it indeed was. Under the cover of night, still beating dust and the flour from the bakery's bread peels off of their clothes, they set off for the Bell Tower. Espella lead them masterfully around every turn, leading them in ways even the professor would have thought counter-intuitive.

Maya asked, loud even in the tense silence, "What even are those tunnels, anyway?"

"They were a mine, once." Espella stopped when she came to a covered alley. She motioned to its back wall and started to climb over it using a stack of boxes as a ladder. "They carved all of the precious earths they could from the stone and then left it empty."

Layton saw an odd look pass over Maya's eyes. He held his tongue. They followed Espella faithfully, but she did not meet their eyes again in the dark. They wound in and out of streets, avoiding any sign of human life via dark shadows and blind corners. Twice they lost sight of her in the tangle of crates and barrels that made up the unused roads before they found her again, stopped cold in her tracks, waiting for them. Or so the professor thought she was.

Layton put an arm out behind him on instinct, and Maya stumbled into it with all her weight.

The Bell Tower loomed, a great pillar of wood standing over the stone village. The courtyard spread out far below. It leeched life away from its base. Buildings stood far from it in fear. Paved paths crossed the courtyard, but nothing pulled people to stay. No benches, no statues, no fountains or fences. No steps, nor even a worn path in the dirt, lead up to the cursed thing. The Bell Tower made its intentions clear. Stay away, spoke the dark wood. Run from this place and never come back.

Maya audibly swallowed. "Welcome to the Witch Factory."

"I wish you both the utmost luck, for this is as close as I dare to come to this place..." Espella reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out a little hourglass on a leather cord. She flipped the hourglass to empty the last bit of sand that remained in the top and spoke in hushed tones. "When it has turned 5 times, that will make an hour's time. Make your way back to the mine, and I shall meet you at the entry."

She pulled Maya's hand to hers and whipped the cord around her wrist. She knotted it snugly and continued. "I will find food and water and whatever else I can, and if I am able, I shall bring The Story. Concern yourself only with finding the truth."

"But-"

The professor cut in before Maya could speak further. "You have our word. Hurry!"

With a firm nod of her head, Espella turned over the hourglass for Maya. Maya stayed silent and flustered as Espella ran off into the night.

"But- but!" Maya flailed. "But that wasn't a mine!"

"You noticed that as well." Layton stepped a little further back into the shadowed alley behind them, giving himself a little time to think. Maya followed after a delay. "No, those tunnels are a purposeful labyrinth... one that Espella navigates with ease."

"It's fishy, professor," Maya grunted. "It's Water Tribe food levels of fishy!"

Memories came unbidden to his mind of cold eyes flashing out from behind friendly glasses, and a cruel smirk with a cruel laugh... He buried those thoughts for now. "At the moment, Espella seems on our side. Let us investigate, Maya."

"Hey professor?" Maya did not move. "You ever seen those nature show where they show the one little otterdeer out on the savannah before its gets eaten by a pride of bear-sharks?"

They shared a long look out into the empty courtyard.

"It is a mental image best put out of our minds, perhaps."

"Let's be the bear-sharks, Professor."

He liked that mental image far more.

Setting out into that uninviting place set his nerves on edge. Maya stayed close, alternated between keeping watch and keeping over his shoulder as he searched the base of the Bell Tower. A central staircase went up a long shaft to the top of the tower, but a heavy locked gate at the base prevented his entrance. The four support beams held no hidden doors or levers. The angle was too steep for him to climb, and the next set of supports was too high for him to boost Maya up, or be lifted in turn.

"Espella said this place re-appeared," Maya wondered with a turn of the hourglass.

"That caught my notice, yes." He ran his fingers over the gate's thick lock. No gives, no seams: the only way in would be by key. The gatehouse was even covered by a plank roof, or else he would have had Luke leap over the gate itself, were Luke here. "Although I cannot imagine how something this large could disappear without mechanical influence."

"Maybe it goes into a tunnel too, like we did..." Maya grasped his shoulder suddenly and bodily turned him. "Look, a witness!"

"Well..." It took a moment for his eyes to settle on the figure in the dark: a lone man, strumming on a shamisen on the steps of a tavern. "A bystander, at least."

A lead to be followed nonetheless, Layton and Maya crossed the courtyard to meet the man. He was a picture of noble frivolity, dressed in smooth silks and the brightest saffron yellows the royal court could afford. To see him outside a tavern made Layton feel the strangest sense of childhood. He was a man playing a history, not living within it. He had honestly seen his students put more effort into their 100 Year War Fair costumes.

The bard showed more awareness for his surroundings than his costume, at least. He greeted the two with the strum of a chord. "To enter the Bell Tower is to knock upon death's door, strangers."

"If that is the case," Layton quietly inquired, "May we ask about it instead?"

"Certainly. For a fare."

"I've got two of these?" Maya reached into her sleeves and pulled out two golden coins. "Found them while we were out searching!"

"Excellent." The bard took the coins and tucked them into the lining of his hat. Layton faintly wondered if he and Phoenix were the only two people in Labyrinthia with pockets. With one last little pluck of a single note, from the second string from the bottom, the bard played.

 _"Far away and long ago_

 _The War began, and in that War_

 _A Fire Lord of might and power_

 _Raised his hand and said, 'Oh Earth,_

 _'How you shall kneel before my feet_

 _'And die before my hand.'_

 _And as the Fire Lord, he spoke,_

 _A mighty dragon, he awoke."_

Maya let out a little sound of recognition. "Oh right, this is that fire-burned-the-town story!"

Layton asked, "Do you often make Phoenix so privy to your though process, Maya?"

The young lady nearly bragged. "There's nothing 'privy' about my thought process. It's all right there in the open!"

The bard's grin widened at the statement. Layton adjusted his hat. "So I have noticed."

 _"The dragon fire whirled aroun'_

 _And burned the mighty city down._

 _The Storyteller built alone_

 _With rock and word, with song and stone,_

 _Until the city rose again_

 _And all its people did rejoice._

 _But lo, the Lord of Flame with grow_

 _Uneasy in her victory._

 _She called upon her hate and ire,_

 _Summoned forth the dragon fire."_

There was a pronoun change there. A blatant one, and it struck him in between the eyes with that dreaded headache from his arrival. Layton staggered, and in his periphery, he could see Maya buckling under the pain. He reached out to steady her, vision swimming so violently that he missed and hit a solid mass of air.

A voice commanded "Hold them," and his head was forced up.

She was a terrifying sight in the dark, the Fire Lord. A cruel sneering mouth under the eyes of a dragon mask, sharp claws at the tips of a metal gauntlet, a billowing robe of barely restrained heat and power. Between the pain and the fire and the grip on his head, Layton broke into an immediate sweat. He tried to check for Maya, but past a faint purple shape out of the corner of his eye, he couldn't turn his head to see.

"And yet, there it stands." Dread claws reached out and clutched over the Bell Tower. "The last remaining piece of the old Labyrinthia... and the killer of Newton Belduke, one month to the day after it appeared before us in a blaze from below.

"And why?" The Fire Lord began to pace. She circled around the two, and locked in place as he was, Layton could only look into the blank staring face of the bard before him. It had been a trick! "Why would he die? Why would the great and all-powerful Storyteller sentence one of his own citizens to a cruel, anonymous death? But then again, perhaps it is not my place to ask such things as a pawn of the king."

Layton clenched his teeth when the tips of those claws hooked under his chin and tipped his head upwards. "But answering questions is what you do. Isn't it, Professor Hershel Layton?"

He ground out through the vice-like grip on his throat- wait no how her hands were nowhere near- "Why are you doing this?"

"There is a reason for everything," she answered swiftly. "And if you do not find it, then I will simply find another to find it instead. After all, we both know how cruel this world can be... one Firebender to another."

The blood left his face.

"And how easily truths can be made from fiction."

"Hey, what- what's going on?"

Maya lurched forward. The Fire Lord released his chin, and Maya shuddered and jerked, protesting words spilling out in a panicked babble, faster and frightened and cracking from fear. All the while, her arms unfurled at the shoulder despite her every effort to keep them close to her, her joints as stiff as a rigored corpse. Layton threw himself against whatever held him. He might as well have been encased in stone.

The Fire Lord laughed. Maya's fingers gnarled into open palms and she laughed. Fire sprung up in Maya's palms, and Maya screamed, and the fire grew bigger and brighter and the Fire Lord laughed.

Layton wasn't free until the fireball burst in Maya's hands and hot air seared his ears and eyes. Darkness crept into the edges of his vision and his head started to swim-

"No!" He would not be knocked out again! He threw the fire out of his eyes and bent the flames away from Maya. Without a wall of flames to smokescreen her, the Fire Lord cut an obvious path through the courtyard and into the town. He shoved into a shuffling Maya, trying to find his footing and sprint all at once. "There! Maya, follow her!"

"Get back here, you witch!" An acrobatic twist of her ankles had Maya's shoes in either of her hands, and they ran. The Fire Lord never looked back, but once she went from a brisk stride to an all-out run, Layton gave up all pretense of a silent pursuit. He put his full effort into running and keeping up with the long-legged Lord, Maya keeping pace at his ankles and shouting every obscenity she could without breaking stride. Every heavy hammer of his legs against the stone woke him up, and he could whip his way around boxes and barrels no matter how hard the Fire Lord banked a curve to lose him. What should have been a minute's chase turned into two, and the breath began to leave him in big choking gasps until, in the darkness, the Fire Lord passed through a wall, and Layton and Maya slammed into it.

Somewhat luckily, although he would use the term loosely, it was only a half wall. The two of them buckled over the top, both swallowing and gasping for air but otherwise unharmed. Maya coughed a bit and spoke, always spoke, "I think I'm gonna throw up... wher- the hourglass!" She scrambled for the little tool at her wrist. "What number was I on?"

The professor's hand fell upon something as he righted himself. His fingers fell into a little groove that felt almost like... writing. Pulling Maya closer to him to block the light, Layton illuminated the stone with a flame from his fingertips. It was small, barely enough to read by, but it serviced.

"Newton Belduke," Maya read aloud. "Alchemist." She made a little angry noise and puffed out her cheeks. "We're getting lead around a lot for people outside of the Storyteller's control."

"It does not sit well with me..." Layton doused the flame and adjusted his hat, letting air touch his sweat-soaked hair. "Not in the slightest."

"But why are we getting set up?" Maya asked. "Fire Lady's problem is obviously with the Storyteller, not us. Did you hear how angry she was?"

He... hadn't. Not in his throws of panic. "I had not. My mind was in other places... we must return to Phoenix and Luke at once."

"What are we gonna tell them?"

"That we've found another lead. A more promising one. Or at least, one that the Fire Lord approves of."

"As long as we're on the rails, the story may continue," Maya disparagingly joked.

Layton grunted his assent.


	11. Labyrinthia? The Fourth Day

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

Layton and Maya had recapped the details in a mad dash through the tunnels and out into the town while he barely had the mind to grab the bread peels and tuck them under his arm. Fire Lord, magic, Bell Tower, Belduke's house, and they needed to hurry. Espella, lacking food or the Story, had no luck at all. Her usual route was heavy guarded, as was Aunt Patty's house.

They weren't out of luck yet, though. A dear friend lived at the Belduke residence, and she would help them, surely. Jean Greyerl had never been an extravagant girl. Her life had been hard before she met the Alchemist, but with his guidance and car she felt she had grown into a dependable and mature young lady. She was younger than Espella, just by a year or two, but she was the Alchemist's apprentice and a brilliant mind even on her own. Taking care of the empty house since her master's untimely death was the least she could do to repay his kindness in life. It kept his memory alive in these dark and uncertain times. A kind man and a great alchemist, living on through a gentle and intelligent young lady.

That was the story Espella told Phoenix in the breathless rush to the Belduke house. Knowing all of that, abridged as it was, it seemed a bit odd that the young lady opened the door fully dressed, wide awake, and looking horrified that they were on her door in the middle of the "night". _Shouldn't she have been asleep?_ he thought to himself.

"Espella-"

"Jean! Please let us in! I beg you! Please!" Espella pleaded. "The Fire Lord's hand is upon us!"

"The Fire Lord!" Jean's voice came through the crack in the door in a breathless whisper. The door slid open fully, inviting them into an unlit, shuttered room. Jean's form was only barely visible, a cowering silouette bleeding into the dark.

Maya shoved her way to the front and rushed in. "Bathroom!"

Phoenix almost felt bad about hurrying in after her, but once Luke ran in claiming he was next and Espella caught herself in the door jamb trying to slink inside, the guilt was gone. He brought up the rear with Layton, balancing the little bread peel and the long-handled one that he and Luke had been sparring with under his arms. The professor shut the door tight behind them while Phoenix gave Jean a polite little bow. "Sorry. We've been... camping."

"Jean is a good friend," Espella explained. Her voice was soft, barely a whisper against the still house. Phoenix had to scan the room for her; his eyes weren't quite adjusting in the dark. He nearly asked Layton to light up the place before his sense kicked back in. "I trust she will understand us, once we have time to tell her everything."

"Yes, of course." It was too dark to tell the color of Jean's robes, but they were modestly tailored and decorated with a little embroidery along the collar. Jean kept her hair long and carefully brushed, even at this time of night, bangs cut straight with not a hair out of place. Her voice stayed neutral and low, even when a loud thump sent a shiver down the spines of everyone in the room.

"Sorry!" Maya called out. "I can't see..."

"I will light the fire," said Jean. "And a few candles. Please, stay here."

Greyerl slipped into the house, into the dark, and in that dark Espella puleld her cloak shut tight. "The fire..."

"You can do it, Espella," said Phoenix. Espella had reacted well to Layton's firebending, sure, but his Labyrinthian memory was still in the back of his mind. Espella was afraid of fire. For whatever reason, that stuck out to him like he _had_ lived his whole life here. He'd even seen it back at the bakery when she would do literally anything else to avoid going near the oven, and that room in the library hadn't done her any favors either. "It's not gonna jump out and attack you or anything!"

 _Unless the Fire Lady has anything to say about it,_ he thought to himself. _But maybe don't tell Espella that part._

There was a tiny spark of a flint, and after a few seconds of fanning and a bit of kindling, the fire lit the small room. It finally let Phoenix get a good look at the place. The Alchemist kept a cluttered house, by the look of it. Walls were covered in shelves covered in bottles covered in labels, but not covered in dust. Carved out of Belduke's relics there sat a little corner where Jean must have done all of her "living". It was close to the fire and housed a low table and floor chair, along with a single-brew teapot and one cup. It didn't seem fair, Jean living all on her own, surrounded by all this stuff with barely enough space to move through it.

Layton spoke his thoughts a little more diplomatically. "You have taken excellent care of Mr. Belduke's things, Miss Greyerl."

Greyerl didn't meet his eyes, occupied with lighting the candles with a long tallow wick, but she responded. "I have done exactly as the Inquisition told me. The house must remain exactly as it was at the time of the Alchemist's death util his murderer is brought to justice."

 _Exactly as it was left._ Phoenix took the candle he was offered and met Layton's gaze. The professor returned it with that silent but keen interest he showed to puzzles. _Time to investigate the crime scene, then. If the Storyteller didn't write about what happened here, then we figure it out ourselves._

He checked Espella. Her eyes were on the fire, she was sweating, she was backing towards the door. _Oh no, please don't run away again_ -

"Once Luke is done, then you guys are good!" Maya announced a mite too loud. She practically attached herself to Espella's shoulder as soon as she emerged from the little branched-off hallway. "Update me!"

Nick spoke fast. "Need water, need quiet, Espella's freaking out, gonna find out why the Fire Lord's mad at the Storyteller and what it has to do with Belduke's murder."

Maya nodded. "Right!"

Greyerl went pale. "What?"

"We have to tell you the story!" Luke joined Espella's other side, and Phoenix took that moment to wind through the hallway and take care of things. If nothing else, Luke's circle-walking lessons were great for weaving his way to the bathroom in a crowded hallway without smacking anyone in the face with a big plank of wood. "The professor's seen the Fire Lord twice now! She brought him straight to this house!"

"She did?"

Espella nodded. "And she is-"

"Mad!" Maya interrupted. Her fists grasped in the air, she stomped for emphasis. "SUPER mad! Mad at the Storyteller for letting the Alchemist die without any reason, and she wants the professor to solve the mystery or she's gonna kill him!"

"Good heavens!" Luke yelped. The professor himself had to adjust his hat to regain his composure. "Don't say it like that!"

Greyerl's eyes were wide and uncomprehending. Shocked, no doubt, and Nick knew once he was back that she'd gotten the Maya Treatment full force. With his bread peel tucked carefully into his belt and bolstered to his back by his suit jacket, he could finally fully concentrate on the situation at hand. He passed Luke's peel to him (Luke put it down on the floor) and deflected the tension. "Okay, let's split up, gang." The professor shuffled past him as he ordered, "Maya, Espella, you two have the biggest pockets. Go with Miss Greyerl and grab anything you can out of the kitchen- and be nice about it! We just need food that travels well! And water!"

"And getting Espella out of the room with the fireplace!" Maya said without Nick having to say it. "Got it!"

Espella was nearly in tears with gratitude. "Thank you so much, Jean..."

"Luke, you and me are gonna go with the professor when he gets back and investigate the house."

"Hang on!" Jean gasped. She was already struggling against Maya, trying not to be tucked under the medium's arm. "The Inquisitors!"

Phoenix assured her, "We promise we won't move anything! We'll just give it a good look-over!" _I don't blame her for panicking. One night Espella's on trial for murder, the next she's barging into your house in the middle of the night with a bunch of wierdos._ Layton came back from the hall, steeling Phoenix's resolve. "Okay, quick! Go!"

Espella sighed in relief. "Quickly, Jean, to the larder!"

"Yeah, Jean, give us the good stuff!"

Jean Greyerl was pulled through a sliding door and into the kitchen, sandwiched eween Espella's oblivious gratitude and Maya laying the cheer on thick. Nick figured it was a smokescreen. It worked, although now they were minus a candle. They had to work by fireplace light and share the one they had left, then. Luke and Layton set upon the room like sniffing shirshu, with Nick flitting between overseeing and looking into things himself.

Layton took the first turn with the little light. With a slow breath, he marginally increased the size of the flame enough to see a few of the labels in stronger light. "These bottles are exhaustively catalogued."

"I don't know all of these characters," added Luke, "But the ones I do recognize are all medicines. There's aspirin, and St. John's Wart, and penicillin... Aren't alchemists supposed to be obsessed with turning lead into gold?"

"Medicines?" Phoenix patted along a shelf until he found a stack of papers, real wood-pulp paper. He held it up to the light- _sorry Jean but you're the one who only left us one candle_ \- and read. The recipe was easy to follow even if the ingredients weren't. Nick could tell they were scientific notation only because he'd seen writing like it in autopsy reports and court records. One part this to three parts that divided by... body weight? Sex and age? To Mr. Emeer Pauchenbaug... "This Belduke guy wasn't an alchemist..."

Layton was suddenly on his arm, pulling him down by the elbow and reading over the papers quickly. "He was a pharmacist!"

"So all of these bottles-" Luke popped a container open with the harsh pop of a cork and sniffed it. "Ah-ha! Have plants in them!"

Phoenix made a horrified noise and swiftly put the recipe papers back while Layton slammed the lid back on the bottle.

"We mustn't open these bottles at random, Luke," the professor roughly chided, his voice graveling with worry. The astringent floral smell was powerful enough for Phoenix to smell even from over by the fireplace, even from those two seconds of being open. "Who knows how dangerous these substances could..."

The smell, the sting, the flavor at the back of his throat all hit Phoenix at once. "It's Story ink!"

"At least half of it," Luke picked out. "The sting-y half that makes my head woozy."

"Your tea-mixing skills have come in handy yet again, Luke. You have given us a great clue." Layton looked over the label thoroughly. "Although I wish your method hadn't been so haphazard."

"Well if I can't read it, I though I'd know what it was if I smelled it!"

Phoenix held the candle up to read over Layton's shoulder. The candle holder was getting a little full of hot wax. He had to balance it carefully to keep it from tipping over. "Being able to read it doesn't help much. Above all the chemical names it just says 'red flower'."

Layton watched Phoenix from over his shoulder. "Do you know what they are?"

"I've seen them sometimes in the evidence folder..." He shyly rubbed his neck. "But it's hard to remember what they actually do unless I have it in front of me. Maya has to tell me how to pronounce the stuff half the time."

"Considering your profession as an attorney, the knowledge doesn't sit well with me." Layton put the bottle back, label out.

Considering he worked almost exclusively murder cases, Phoenix didn't blame him in the slightest. He was making one more scan of the room when his eyes caught something in the flickering candle light. He made his way towards it, Luke going in front of him and Layton staying close by his side.

There was a light patch in the wall. It had been plastered over recently with fresh mud; the color didn't entirely match, and the edges were swirled and lumpy. Hand-plastered? Holding up the light revealed tiny fingerprints, and oh what Nick wouldn't give for a fingerprinting kit right about now... not to mention the criminal database that went along with it. Layton put his hand to the spot in the way he looked for puzzles... and the wall gave way! It buckled and crumbled to dust with the gentlest pressure, the coating of mud only supported by a long decayed piece of dry paper. It revealed a hole in the mud wall.

Passing the candle over to Layton, Phoenix practiced a little of his airbending. Arms and legs worked together to roll his hands in a circle before just gently tapping forward. A little whorl of air rolled off his fingers and flickered the candle. The other side of the hole wiggled, flying outward and then bouncing back. Phoenix put the sounds together in his head. Made of wood? Not solid wood. Didn't feel like wood, not after he'd spent about an hour practicing his airbending with a solid wood bread peel. It felt more like cloth.

"It's a painting," he guessed.

"Hanging on the wall in another room," Layton finished.

"In front of a hole you can reach through!" Luke held his arms up. They didn't reach the spot. "Well, if you're tall."

Phoenix put his arm up against the little opening. It was only about as big as a... journal? Two envelopes? He wasn't too muscled a guy, but he couldn't bit both of his arms through it. "And skinny."

"One would only have to be slight, if I may correct you."

Layton nudged Luke aside and hooked his foot under a nearby box. It was the crate Greyerl had gotten the kindling out of, and Phoenix hadn't paid any attention to it before. The box slid easily away with a gentle pressure from Layton's foot and revealed a deep set of drag marks underneath. It stopped naturally under the hole in the wall. Passing the candle back to Phoenix, he stood on the box; Phoenix's hand naturally went to the professor's back to steady him. He only had to stoop a little, make himself just a little shorter, but both of his arms went through easily with room to spare.

Someone gasped.

Phoenix whipped around- they all did- to the sight of the short, slight Jean Greyerl and her wide, horrified blue eyes, sandwiched between Maya and Espella.

Phoenix had to think fast. The situation was obvious, but just because it was obvious didn't mean it was true. He couldn't jump to conclusions. He had to take stock. Layton was getting tense in his shoulders, just like when he was mad at the judge during the trial. Luke was flinching, scared or embarrassed, maybe both. Espella just looked confused, while Greyerl was making a face like they'd had their hands in a corpse instead of a hole in the wall. Maya's eyes were flitting around the room, connecting the dots. He didn't have to worry about her. He just had to keep the tension low, not scare Greyerl, and keep looking into the crime scene. If this _was_ the crime scene...

"Miss Greyerl?" Phoenix kept his voice quiet and his hands visible. "We found this bad spot in the wall. Did you know it was here?"

Jean swallowed thickly. "No."

"Where does it lead?"

Layton was a shivering pillar of tension next to him. He was ready to pounce on that lead, he could tell. Easy, professor. I know the feeling. Let it come naturally.

For looking like an ostrich horse trapped in a burning barn, Greyerl's voice stayed composed. "Into Sir Belduke's study. He was murdered there."

"We need to take a closer look, if that's possible."

"I... of course."

"Thank you."

Greyerl took both the candles back from Luke and Espella. Phoenix tried to keep his eyes away from the fact that theirs was more heavily melted than the girls'. She took them around a blind corner, hooking her elbow into the latch of another sliding door and leading them through, Layton and Phoenix in the front, kids in the back. Untouched by any light but the candles, the darkness was stuffy and molded and choking. Greyerl lead with somber steps, visible in the dark but hardly illuminated. Each little bottle of essences caught the light, diffused it, but never reflected it. Instead they cast long dancing shadows on the walls of the study, on every scattered paper, on the powder covering the floor, on the broken chair at the desk that leaned back crooked and limp like the corpse that once filled it. Alchemist Belduke had long since left the room, but his spirit lingered on in a dark haze that kept light, kept life itself, at bay forever.

Above the chair, just at neck level, hung a painting.

Phoenix heard Luke whimpering. When he checked out of the corner of his eye, he spied the little lad cowering back into Maya's clinging arms. Espella's face, half-masked by the dark, showed the same tangible fear they were all feeling, no doubt.

Until Phoenix looked to Professor Layton. Straight-shouldered, stone-faced, quietly concentrating even while the candlelight flickered in his eyes.

 _Wow... what a man,_ Phoenix thought. _Eyes on the prize while the rest of us are flinching at a couple of shadows. Come on, Wright! Grow a pair!_

He straighten up his coat, let his fingers linger on his attorney's badge for a second, and took a breath. "All right. Investigation time. Candle please."

"No."

Phoenix stuttered dumbly in surprise. Layton answered for him. "Excuse me?"

"The Inquisitors already made the mistake of bringing candles onto the crime scene, dripping wax onto the floor." Greyerl's tone was cold and flat, and her eyes had gone stony to match. "I will keep the light. You may search from here."

Maya muttered from the back. "That's impossible, she's against the wall! No matter where they stand, they'll block their own light!"

"What's she getting at?" Luke nearly growled.

"Please, Jean is only looking out for the room," Espella soothed. "She means no harm."

 _This kid's got some prosecutor in her, that's for sure..._ Phoenix wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, and his hand came away crusty. Flour. Still. Great.

Layton offered his took it with a solid clap that brought a smile to the professor's face and gave it a solid squeeze. They could do this.

Maya jabbed him in the ribs. "Stop flirting and go check the crime scene."

"Maya that is your second strike-"

Luke pleaded, "Mr. Wright!"

 _All I did was grab his hand..._

Layton adjusted his top hat, and they took their first steps out into that forboding room. They did indeed block their own light as they walked. Phoenix had long enough legs to step over the bloom of powder dusting the floor, but had to half-pull Layton in a short jump to cross him over.

"How exactly did Mr. Belduke die, Jeanie?" Maya asked. Phoenix knew that tactic. If Maya was using a nickname, especially an overly-familiar one, she was trying to be a distraction. Phoenix thumbed the painting over to reveal the hole behind it, silently acknowledging that it was a registered clue. Layton made the same, wordless note of an empty bottle on the table. The label was turned towards them, but away from Greyerl. They couldn't see it for the shadow.

"He was strangled," Greyerl stated.

Hole in the wall hidden from the victim at neck height. Phoenix swallowed. Layton's lipped thinned. It wasn't looking good, but it was all circumstantial at the moment. It wasn't necessarily Greyerl that killed him. Labyrinthia wasn't lacking for short folk, and Phoenix was used to his crime scenes being more convoluted than their first appearance. Jean's eyes were on them again, though. The distraction wasn't enough. Maya lead on. "That's weird, the Fire Lord mentioned the Bell Tower whenever she talked about the Alchemist."

With that, Greyerl gasped and turned her head to Maya. Layton quickly wicked a flame under the bottle's label, hidden behind the desk. Phoenix read it quick- "Nightshade"- before Layton flicked the flame out. "What about the Bell Tower?"

"That it appeared in a bit tower of fire out of nowhere," Maya 'innocently' continued. "Why, is that important?"

"I... was there." Greyerl kept her eyes away to speak to the three, leaving Phoenix and Layton room to rifle and pick things up. The nightshade bottle had finger marks in the dust even now, large ones, a man's hands. His writing utensils were scattered around the desk.

"We were getting milk from the market when a tremor shook the ground, and there was suddenly fire. It curled up from below, engulfed half of the courtyard, and when it finally died... the Bell Tower stood."

He had been writing? Phoenix picked up a bundle of papers from the shelf next to the desk. They were blank, but they smelled... citrus-y? As she spoke, Layton suddenly pulled them flush together. He took the papers in his left arm, the one wedged between the two of them, and held a flame underneath them in his right. The light shined through them, and on the bottom paper... writing started to appear? He knew this trick! Lemon juice invisible ink! Phoenix took a few of the papers and fanned them out with his right hand. He bent a circle of air with his left along with Layton's flame. It spread out the heat and fanned the pages, making the writing appear on all of them at once.

"Sir Belduke spoke little from that day. He acted as if he had seen the dead rise from the Earth... he spent much time in his study, and spoke to no one, but he wrote prolifically. I never read the missives, but they all went to the same address."

To his dearest friend, the letter read as they skimmed it together. It was Belduke's handwriting, the same as all the bottles in the main room. He couldn't continue with life, his affairs must be put in order, please look after the house and his aide and his dear little girl, what a ruin they'd made of the amazing discovery under the city? Phoenix felt his stomach drop as Newton Belduke wrote of his death by poisoning. All this time, and the suicide note was right by his chair.

"The Storyteller, Arthur Cantabella."

"His name is WHAT?!" Phoenix shouted, throwing himself away from the notes and scattering them across the room in a burst of air. Greyerl turned to the sight, eyes going wide as saucers, reflecting the three flames in the room- the one in Layton's hand!

Jean screamed. "He- he IS the Avatar! Guards! GUARDS!"

Everyone moved at once. The kids tried to converge on Jean and succeeded only at smashing face-first into each other. She dropped to her hands and galloped past them all in the panic, and Layton was stalled trying to stomp out the candles guttering against the floor, leaving Phoenix to chase her on his own. Jean had just stopped in the center of the main room as Phoenix made it to the door, and with a wave of her arms, suddenly the fire in the hearth leaped straight up through the flue and, presumably, out of the chimney where the entire village could see it. "Firebenders! FIREBENDERS, AT THE ALCHEMIST'S! GUARDS!"

"What- Jean?!" Espella shrieked from behind him. "You?!"

Maya clawed herself against Phoenix's back, trying to get through. "TRAITOR!"

"Everyone out!" Layton called. "Hurry, before-"

The walls came down on all sides, and on every side, there were Inquisitors.

He wasn't sure how he managed it later, but the bread peel came out of his jacket in one swift movement, and he was airbending against the whole Labyrinthian guard. The heavy counterweight of the wood meant he could swing and follow through whenever a guard threw a punch at him, bent a rock, tried to grab at his feet. At first swinging blindly, once he caught Luke in his sights he mirrored the boy's quick turns and sweeping blows to push back the approaching guards. Maya and Espella naturally fell into the eye of their swirling storm, while Layton had somehow found Luke's little bread peel and was deflecting the heavy blows of Barnham's stone katars.

"Just ONCE I wanna do sometehing in this stupid city-" Phoenix roared. "That DOESN'T result in me getting attacked by the police!"

"We can't hold them off forever!" Layton shouted as his makeshift shield started to splinter.

"Then run on the count of three!" Phoenix knocked a guard into the air with a particularly heavy blow, and he wished he could say he did it on purpose. "Sorry! Okay-"

Maya yanked his coat. "THREE GO NOW!"

"UM- AIRBALL!"

Luke had himself up on an air ball in seconds, but Phoenix found himself between a kick and the build-up for the airball by the time he caught the current. It didn't collect under his feet in a "solid" whirling ball; instead it found his hands and feet, and pushed him up and over, and to Phoenix's horror he found himself cartwheeling through the guard and knocking them all out of the way with a solid wheel of air.

 _Better than nothing_ , his mind distantly said as his body screamed. At the very least, when he panicked and flailed and lost the air wheel, something was there to cushion his fall. He grabbed at it instinctively and used it to pull himself up to his feet, only then getting a good look at it.

It was- Kira?!

Kira screamed, as did Espella and all the guards behind him when she disappeared into a cloud of dust and flew from the scene. _How was she- how DID she-?!_ "Kira wait! Guys, follow it!" Dust, right? Phoenix spun on his heel, collecting air, and tossed it at the dirt cloud. It unfurled from the legs up like a cloak, uncovering Kira again for a split second before she disappeared into dust. "Stop that!"

The guards wailed in terror behind them, and the farther they ran, the more the guards fell into a panicked rabble behind them. Leading the charge, Phoenix only knew Layton and Luke were at his heels because he could feel the air they displaced against the back of his neck. Luke puffed the dust out of the way, revealing Kira's legs here or a shoulder there, keeping them on track as they followed her blindly.

Maybe they should have looked a little hard. A building Phoenix recognized appeared at the end of the street. It was the courthouse; he nearly stopped in his tracks if not for Layton pulling on him, keeping him running. "Don't stop, follow her!"

They followed without another word, all too winded to argue. Kira entered as if they'd left the door unlocked for her, and it made Phoenix's stomach hurt with how easy it was to do it. Every door was unlocked, especially the one that lead into the court room and its giant death machine in the floor. They burst through the heavy doors just in time to see Kira leap into the cage and descend into the dark pit.

Layton threw a ball of fire down into the hole after her. It fell, down and down and down, illuminating the entire passage, until it hit the bottom in a plume. The bottom was flat and empty and uninteresting, but it wasn't just a floor. It was a tunnel, heading under the Judge's bench. "Ah-ha! There! It's not an execution device at all!"

Maya gulped down her air. "Sure didn't work on Kira..."

Barnham's voice echoed in the empty hall. "My sentiments exactly."

"Oh come on!" Phoenix argued. He tried to stand to his full height to meet Barnham's eyes while the Inquisitor shut the heavy doors behind him. "You can't even give us a minute to catch our breath?!"

The Inquisitor locked the door behind him with a shift of his weight to his foot. The kid, Phoenix had to admit, was a seriously powerful earthbender. He could feel the little shifts in the earth whenever Barnham moved, barricading the door with earth along the threshhold. "If you want my cooperation, then you'll hold your tongue, defender. As you will hold your fire, Sir Top Hat."

Layton made... a noise. Phoenix couldn't describe it. It was hurt and shocked and weak but none of those things, just wordless and pained. Luke took up a stance in front of the professor, and Phoenix did too, protecting him. "If you make one more move, I'm gonna- do something airbender-y! What do you want?"

"I saw everything..." Barnham sheathed his katars. "The firebender we saw killed with our own eyes. Sir Top Hat, a firebender. Both of you airbending. You cannot both be the Avatar."

"Hey look," Phoenix joked. "You're getting the hang of logical thought."

"Tell him about the house!" Maya shouted hoarsely. "Tell him how Greyerl strangled the Alchemist!"

Phoenix shook his head. "She didn't."

"She didn't?!" Luke puffed out a relieved breath. "I'm glad she's not a murderer, then..."

"Whatever happened to Belduke after, I don't know. But read the letter he left for the Storyteller, and you'll see." At that, he had to give his best nervous smile. "I... kinda airbent them all over the office, so sorry about that. But- but anyway, the point is, the letter said something about a place under the town, and this is our best way of getting there!"

It made as much sense at anything, lately. Kira had sure gone down there and disappeared, and Barnham wasn't trying to kill them just yet. He was looking grim, though. When he spoke, it was almost... mournful. "The Pit of Death is a death trap, designed to grind firebenders into pulp so their remains do not have the dignity of being recognizable." He flinched at the collective wail of disgust and fear that went through the kids. Phoenix's first thought was that the professor needed another hug. "Or... so I have been told. And I have begun... to doubt."

"Doubt..." The professor spoke, "Can be a very powerful tool."

Barnham nodded. "I shall lower all of you into the pit. Should you die, you will have deserved your fate. Should you live, perhaps... the truth may yet live also."

Without another word, he moved towards them, corralling them all to the machine. They gathered together in a clump, everyone's hand one someone's shoulder for support. Phoenix's were on Espella's and Layton's, and that might have been Luke holding tight to his jacket pocket, he wasn't sure. The weight of what they were about to do was creeping up on him. Moment of truth, would they get garbage disposaled, or suddenly find themselves somewhere... worse? The cage rose with Barnham's earthbending, and while it was too small to fit all of them, they managed by circling the outside and hanging onto each other.

"We're not gonna die," Maya chanted to herself, only half convinced. "We're not gonna die they lie to us all the time in this place, we are not gonna die..."

Layton's arm was wrapped tight around his waist, fingertips digging in tight. Phoenix pressed Luke tight against the metal. They wouldn't die, right? Kira didn't. Barnham wouldn't- he wouldn't set them up to die, would he? He kept his breathing steady, staying strong for the kids. The Layton Stoneface kept him feeling brave, so it should work for the others too.

Barnham's hands hung in the air. "The moment of truth."

They went down, and the gnashing jaws and smashing walls of the pit all went off... above them. The cage would lower and the pit would roar and rumble, but it was never anywhere near their bodies. It was all just a big show! Phoenix laughed when his feet hit the tunnel floor. They were safe!

When the pit opened up again, Barnham's shock of red hair was plainly visible looking down at them. Layton lit the tunnel with a hand full of bright, shameless fire, showing Espella's fatigued droop against Phoenix's shoulder and Maya and Luke's joyful dancing.

"NOT DEAD!" Maya shouted up to the top. "NOT! DEAD!"

"We'll be back, Barnham!" Phoenix called back up before they set off down the secret path. "With the truth!"

Barnham nodded, and though he was far above their heads, Phoenix swore he could see the kid smile. "Not if I find it first, Defender Wright!"

"Good luck!" Feeling something a lot like hope for the first time since he "woke up", Phoenix joined his friends down the tunnel. Whatever was on the other side, it had to be better than here.


	12. An Interlude in the Garden

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

There were no glowing crystals to light this tunnel. The only light came from Layton, who took a comfortable lead and kept the group marching steadily forward. There were no other paths to follow, and although he could see ostrich-horse prints and wheel tracks in the dirt below, they had no wagon of their own. It translated to a long and uneventful walk, which meant Maya aimed for the most pressing topic in the least delicate manner possible.

"So-" and thus it began. Maya was all faux-innocent smiles and crossed wrists. "Miss Espella Cantabella. Common name in Labyrinthia?"

Espella promptly hid in her cloak. "I believe Sir Layton called it a... 'painful truth'?"

"How's it painful?" Phoenix asked. He kept pace just behind Layton, one hand in his pocket and the other holding onto his makeshift staff. "Your dad rules the whole city, you said yourself he lives in a 'castle'... you must've lived pretty well, right?"

Espella nodded. "I won't deny it. I never wanted for food or toys or books. What life I can remember there was carefree."

Layton caught that careful choice of words. "Do you remember much of your childhood, Espella?"

She shook her head. "The memories I do have are very faint. I remember only my old room and a few places like the kitchen or Father's study. I had a cat once, I think... Her name was Eve? Maybe? I don't remember. I don't remember any family past my father. I know I must have a mother, but he never spoke of her."

"There's just..." Maya wiggled her fingers out from her temples. "Nothing there?"

"Only of spending time with Father." Espella sighed. "As I grew older, he grew more distant. He would spend days at a time locked in his writing room, piecing together the Story. At first, I hadn't minded so much. It gave me the chance to go outside, and the villagers were eager to make my acquaintance."

"I can see why," Luke cut in quick. "You being so nice and cheerful and all."

Espella earnestly smiled at the remark, but only for a moment. The dour history weighed on her heavily, it seemed. "One afternoon, I went shopping, and someone bumped into me in the market. He knocked me over." She pulled up her sleeve to show the rough patch of elbow where the scar hadn't fully faded.

"It was just an accident. I went to Sir Belduke for a poultice, and he must have told Father. The next page of the Story had the man burned alive by the firebenders."

Layton couldn't hold back a shocked gasp. None of them could, although Maya's was a proper shout of "What?! That's crazy!"

Espella pulled her sleeve back down, her eyes distant and darkened. "Afterward... I found it much harder to make friends."

He stopped. This seemed too serious a topic to keep his attention diverted. Espella's pain was still raw, it seemed. The others froze in their tracks and turned to her, ready to listen. "How long ago was this?"

"Three years... maybe? I was so..." Every nervous habit Espella had came to the forefront. She adjusted her cloak, squeezed her fingers, pulled her cloak shut and then fluffed it open again, all over and over as the words tried to squeeze out of a tight throat. "I couldn't imagine how he could do such a thing! I didn't even know the man and Father- And he was always away! I couldn't find him to ask him! And when I could, I- I was..."

Her fervor broke with the weight of her words. All of her energy left in one rush of breath. She held herself tightly. "I was scared... of what might happen to me if I upset him."

Maya immediately hugged her. Luke joined in fast, as did Phoenix. Layton stayed respectfully out of the impromptu cuddle until Phoenix grabbed him by the arm and forced him to give Espella a bolstering pat on the shoulder, but he didn't mind much. Seeing the smile it put on her face kept him from feeling like an intruder.

"I'm fine..." Espella quietly wiped her two little tears on her sleeve and pulled herself out of the hugs, finally smiling and keeping it. "I'm fine, really! Aunt Patty took me in when I ran away... I don't think Father noticed I was gone... She took care of me like a mother, and I've been happy with her ever since."

One piece of her story didn't exactly fit. Layton pointed out, "When we met you, you had the Story with you."

"You did," Phoenix remembered. "Maya and I opened the book ourselves before we woke up here."

Maya added, importantly, "It reeked."

"I did? I still know the way into my old home." Espella shook her head. "My memories of even a few days ago are fuzzy... But when I went to try and steal it again, the way was thick with guards."

"I wonder if the Storyteller does that on purpose," Maya conjectured. "Makes it so you can't remember anything so you won't try to steal it again-"

"That's horrible!" Luke shouted. "What a terrible father!"

"Everyone, please. Calm yourselves." Layton spoke in his normal tone, but it was enough in that echoing cave. Everyone stopped to listen. "It won't do to get ourselves worked up over what-ifs. Whatever his intentions may be, we seem to be well out of his reach now."

"And we've got Barnham on our side!" Phoenix added. He clapped his hands together cheerfully. "Never thought that would happen!"

Luke copied the motion. "Yeah! I reckon he's helping us out up above even as we speak! We just need to look on the bright side of things!"

"Like... how nobody's breathing down our necks?" Maya put forth. "We can do whatever we want now and don't have to answer to anybody! Not the courts, not the boss, not even your dad! We're our own free agents!"

"There is something..." Espella struggled for the words. "Very... liberating? About the thought."

"Yeah! We're FREE!" Maya struck a triumphant pose, feet set firmly and fist outstretched into the tunnel. "To go forward! … the only way we _can_ go. Down the hallway." Luke started to giggle. "With LIBERTY!" And there went Luke into full-scale giggling. "To the light at the end of the tunnel!"

"Oh, did you see that too?" Espella asked. "I thought I was just imagining it."

"No, Espella, it's a figure of speech-"

"Wait, Professor, snuff the light!" Phoenix suddenly said. "I think I see it too!"

"See what?" He'd gotten so wrapped up in the fun, he'd stopped looking forward. He put out his flame and gave his eyes a second to adjust to the dark. Once they had, he could see it clearly. The far end of the tunnel was flowing with a faint blue light! The five wordlessly took off for the end together at a full run, preemptively panting for breath and still sore from their last sprint.

It was worth the ache. Layton gasped aloud in shock. The surprise sent Luke and Espella to their knees and set Maya babbling. Phoenix's hand landed heavy on his shoulder, to keep the lawyer upright.

It was a living spirit spring. They were fairly rare until the Harmonic Convergence which merged the living world and the spirit world, but every so often, the energies of the immaterial plane would bubble up from the earth in the form of cold, crystal clear spirit water. It felt alive compared to normal, material water. It energized the air, softened the soil, rippled the ground around it. It could be felt even when it couldn't be seen, and it could only barely be seen through the massive columns of green plants reaching up to the ceiling. The cavern, illuminated by bright electric floodlights, held a pillar of three or two or one variety of edible plant, all of them in full fruit. Thick-trunked trees lined the walls of the cave, their branches meeting the rock walls and curling up and over to accommodate themselves in the limited space. Paved concrete paths circled every pillar and seemed to lead themselves towards the center of the little oubliette. The floodlights warmed the air from above. The spirit water chilled the air from below. The both together filled the space with the smell of petrichor and loam and concrete.

"Did..." Rely on Maya to break the tension. "Did we die?"

"This... can't be real..." Layton marched forward, blindly moving past the pillars of food until he arrived at the center. There it was, plain as the hat on his head. Framed in brickwork but otherwise untouched, the spirit spring sat blue and tranquil at the center of the room, big as a bedroom and fed by an uphill-flowing stream from a cavern that stretched down further into the earth.

He dropped to his knees, cupped his hands into the water, and drank. It was bone-chillingly cold, and it electrified his innards and caressed his skin even to touch it. It was real spirit water, hidden in underground Labyrinthia.

All five of them drank their fill.

"Ouch..." Espella breathed carefully. "This water hurts..."

Maya threw her hands into the spring for the thrill of touching it. "The pain means it's good for you! It- hey, something..." She looked inside. "There's pipes in there! They're sucking up the water!"

"Pipes? In a spirit spring?" Layton rolled up his sleeves and followed her hand, feeling out the pipe with his own fingers. They were! Who would be so profane as to install pipes in a spirit pool? Phoenix stood up and tried tracing the path of the pipe from the direction it was pointed, only to run face-first into a wall of plants. His skin tingled with the water that splashed onto is face.

"Hey, guys..." He pushed his whole arm in, pulling the same face he did when he drank from the pool. Underneath his hand, he felt soil and loam held in place by a thick wire mesh. "I think... they're watering the plants with it."

"Really? Hold on-" Maya got up and inspected the pillar herself. "Hmm, cucumbers... small, fat ones, stripey skin, not too many prickles..."

"Does that tell you anything?" Phoenix asked.

"Yeah! That they're good eating!" Maya roughly yanked one off the vine and started rubbing the cucumber's prickles off on her sleeve. "I'm so sick of bread, I couldn't even begin to tell you guys."

Espella could only point and whimper as the vine sprouted a new flower that began to grow into a cucumber before their very eyes.

Layton stood up to his full height, taking the scale of the place into account. They could cross the room well enough, for the space wasn't exactly large. With the vertical space and the regenerative powers of the plants taken into account, along with the shining industrial lights aiding in growth, he would have been surprised if all of this wasn't enough to keep all of Labyrinthia happily fed. His eyes fell on two particular columns, one green and one yellowed but both covered in a long, almost hair-like covering of thin grass. Wheat, for the bread. Of course. Fascinating.

Maya spoke with the determination he had never heard from her before. "Luke. Nick. Professor. All of you leave. I'm going to take a bath."

Phoenix choked. "Maya no-"

"Maya yes!" she snapped back. "It has been three days!"

Luke counted on his fingers. "Actually I think it might've been four..."

She swung her arms to emphasize Luke's point. "It might have been four days! My sleeves are full of crumbs! We all slept in the dirt! I still have flour puffing out of me at random! We're unsupervised in a private garden with unlimited fresh fruit and veg and a pool-sized spirit bath and you _don't_ want to take a bath?! This is the universe rewarding us for putting up with all the crazy for the last three-maybe-four days!" She took a spirited- no pun intended- bite out of her cucumber for emphasis. "And they're GOOD! Professor, what if there's- I dunno- fresh strawberries in here and you miss out because you're like 'oh bother the water might find it rude if I take a dip'?"

He grimaced. He didn't appreciate the... impression, but he understood her frustrations quite clearly. His stomach was certainly agreeing with her, already tightened in expectation of strawberries. Phoenix and Luke were looking so hopeful, and now in the proper light, their clothes were looking awfully dusty and wrinkled.

"Bathing is purification! I won't be doing anything wrong!" Maya tugged at her hair. "And all I need it a little while to brush out my hair and-"

Espella wordlessly reached into one of her pouches and pulled out a travel-sized hairbrush.

Maya pulled Espella to her. "And Espella's just earned bathtime-sharing privileges. You can't talk me out of it. Boys, go, now. Take the clothes and beat the dirt off them or something. We'll call you when we need them back!"

"Professor..." Phoenix sighed. "I... let's go get something to eat."

"Agreed..." Sometimes battles were best left surrendered than continued, although he did blush when the girls deposited their robe and cloak into his arms. "We'll... be back for you."

"Don't hurry!" Maya took off her shoes and jumped into the pool. "COLD!"

The three men skirted out of the girl's line of sight quickly, and equally quickly they distracted themselves with the new selection of food. They were passing quite a lot, although not much they could eat off the plant. Cabbages, peas, green pumpkins and watermelons (oh what he wouldn't give for a pocket knife), carrot tops and potato leaves. It wasn't until they hit the far wall that they stopped, faced with a wide variety of fruit trees. Luke bent himself up into the tops of the trees, eager for the high-hanging fruit. Phoenix took the clothes from Layton and tied them to the low branch of a lemon tree so they dangled, removing his own coat and all the items from his pockets before he did the same.

"Beating the dirt off of them isn't too bad of an idea. Lemme get-" Phoenix patted his back... and then darted around in a circle. "W-wait! Where's my peel?"

Luke put a hand to his chin. "I think you put it down in the tunnel when we all hugged Espella..."

"Agh! What am I gonna do?! I can't airbend without it!"

"That's not true at all! Is it, Professor?"

Layton shook his head. "I'm sure your 'fan' was an excellent teaching tool, but you must have faith in your new abilities, Phoenix. Let us eat while we can, and then we'll practice."

Back in the spirit pool, Maya had brought Espella whatever food she could pick without walking too far. Clothes roughly washed and laid out to dry on the concrete, Maya sat herself in the cool water and gnashed away at her cucumber. "Oh, and it's so sweet! Not bitter at all! These are the perfect cukes!"

Espella nibbled away at a sweet pepper she'd roughly hollowed into a cup and filled with sugar snap peas. She looked lost in thought, working up her confidence to ask, "Is... Phoenix really the Avatar?"

"What, Nick? Naaah." Maya gulped down her mouthful of food and rested her head in her hand. "We're kinda between Avatars right now. Ours died like two years ago."

"Was he an airbender?"

"We haven't had an airbender Avatar since the _real_ 100 Years War." Maya "explained" as best she could, making a time line by putting her fingers down against the rock. "Okay so there was Avatar Aang the airbender, and he lived for like two-hundred years by accident and he ended the 100 Years War, and then there was Avatar Korra, and she was a waterbender from the Southern Tribe, and we had her for like ANOTHER hundred years and then she finally died of old age like two years ago."

Espella marveled. "Have we been underground for two hundred years?"

"I'm thinkin' no." Maya took another bite. "A lot of what you got taught is, like, a huge lie."

"But..." Espella dared to ask, timid and quietly. "You are telling the truth?"

"That's good to ask!" Maya jabbed Espella in the collar. "Because you don't know, do you? Not until you look into it yourself and find your own answers! Because otherwise I might be telling you a different lie!"

"But... you're not."

"Oh yeah, I'm totally telling the truth."

"Maya, your lust for life is... so... unique." Espella chuckled. "But you are hard to understand sometimes."

"Yeah, I'm my own language or something." Maya shrugged. "It took forever for Nick to get a clue about what I was saying. Meanwhile Nick's just a giant open book."

"I hope we're not taking too long," Espella thought aloud. "I wouldn't want to hold up his bath."

"The time we spend bathing is the time he spends eating." Maya noshed her cucumber again. "He and the boys are probably really enjoying themselves right now."

Layton had found the strawberries and was thoroughly enjoying himself. They were sweet, just a touch overripe, and plentiful. While he took his time enjoying them- what he wouldn't give for a little cream and sugar- Phoenix had eaten a lighter meal and taken to throwing punches at laundry. A low-lying peach tree had obligingly lent a branch, and Phoenix had hung up Espella's cloak, Maya's robes, his own suit jacket, Luke's jumper, and Layton's own coat. His intention seemed to be whipping the dirt off of the articles with air. His results were... less so.

"No- no, you can't just punch!" Luke called from a treetop. "You're not shooting an air bullet! Your guiding air with your own energy."

"But why do I have to do all of this-" Phoenix whirled his arms about, "Just to build up momentum! I don't wanna do all of this-" he whirled, "Just to get a puff of air from here to there!"

"Well that's how it works!"

"Perhaps a change of perspective would help," Layton explained. "Try and see bending as an extension of your own body. It's not like throwing a object, where it's out of your control once it leaves your hand. You are guiding the air much like you guide your hands at the ends of your arms."

Phoenix adjusted his stance and wriggled his neck until his collar was sitting more comfortably against his skin. A buttoned shirt was no clothing to practice the martial arts, that much was certain. Layton found himself adjusting his own collar out of sympathy. "So like I have... really long invisible tentacle arms?"

Luke had to give that a moment of thought, but "Er... I suppose so, yeah."

"Firebending and airbending are not too dissimilar, after all." Layton put his food down, thoroughly engrossed in this thought exercise. Phoenix worked through an unfamiliar kata as he spoke. "Both of our elements are rather intangible. Fire is within us and expressed only when bending, while air is always around us but invisible. You are not picking up a measurable object and tossing it around like water or earth. You are the force behind it, driving it, and directing it."

Phoenix threw his weight forward, bringing his hands in front of him in sweeping arcs from the sides. The violence of the action brought all of his weight onto one leg, the other one jutting out to keep his balance. The air he caught slammed into the clothes on either side. A puff of dust and flower flew off of the wriggling garments, but the equal force from both sides kept them from flying off the branch.

Layton sat upright.

Luke stuttered, "H-how'd you do that?"

"I did what you said!" Phoenix held his hands out; his fingers were hooked as if he were holding onto something. "I picture it like I was clapping my hands, but my hands were out where the clothes are, and I clapped them!" He repeated the move, leg out and all, and the impact shook the branch. "Oops, aimed a little high there."

Luke called down to Layton. "The awakened ones are always quick learners."

"So they are..."

"All right! I know how to punch now!" Phoenix stretched until his back popped and shook himself loose. "That should be enough until we get out of here. Hey Luke! Toss me a peach!"

The statement gave Layton pause. If Phoenix was already complacent, then he certainly would not improve once they were out of this predicament. He needed encouragement and practice, and he needed it subtly. Forcing him to drill techniques when he was still hungry would do him no-

Layton had a flash of brilliance and held out his hand. Luke, catching the gesture, picked a peach and tossed it to him. Phoenix's small look of betrayal was almost enough to make him grin, but he only allowed himself a slight smile. "Hey!"

"If what you have learned is enough..." Layton stood and opened the first button of his collar for room, "Then surely I would be happy to give you this peach."

To his credit, Phoenix saw right through the charade. He chuckled and tucked his hands into his pockets. "Playing the master, huh? Even if I mess up, I know you won't hurt me for real."

"Indeed." Layton nodded. "You'll find my self-control impeccable. I solemnly promise that fire will never touch your skin, no matter what you try."

The lawyer hopped on his toes, looking excited, and Layton found himself a little thrilled as well. He hadn't had a good spar in ages. "All right, here I come, the Wright way!"

He rushed blindly forward, and for his trouble, Layton uppercut a jet of fire just short of the tip of his nose. Phoenix jumped back with a yelp and a slight flush to his face as he patted it, checking for burns.

"That was hot!"

Layton casually tossed the peach in his hand, silently proud and listening to Luke giggle from the trees. "You'd be amazed how people forget that fire doesn't need to touch you to hurt you." With that, he took a bite of the peach.

Phoenix went red again. "My peach!"

"As long as it is in my hand, it belongs to me." He was having far too much fun with this. Teasing Phoenix felt comfortable, though, as it was obvious even now that the lawyer wasn't hurt or offended, only challenged. He could see the gears turning in Phoenix's head, even now, watching his eyes track up the peach tree and into the hanging fruits. He seemed to be trying a more out-of-the-box solution; if he couldn't get this peach, he would just grab another. He applauded the methodology, but that wasn't the point of the lesson. He waited until it looked like Phoenix had made up his mind, until he shifted his weight, before he stepped forward and swung his leg out. It was a high blow, catching Phoenix's neck in the crook of his leg and bringing him flat onto the ground. No bending required, just a simple scissor kick that had Phoenix floored and him eating another mouthful of fruit.

"Layton! Now my shirt's wet!" Phoenix shouted from the concrete. "That's not fair!"

"Isn't it?" Layton asked, stepping off of Phoenix. "I thought you had learned enough."

Phoenix stared at him as if he'd just made the lawyer's personal hit list... and then he smiled. "All right. Let's take this seriously."

Phoenix reared back and kipped onto his feet, then came at Layton swinging. Layton sidestepped and stepped again, leading Phoenix into a subtle circle walk until his legs were falling properly, then sharply turned and jumped backwards. Phoenix's footing faltered fast. The lawyer pulled himself into an impressive back bend, not entirely falling, barely balanced on one foot. He almost got caught up admiring the muscle strength the move required before Phoenix was slamming back onto both feet. Drawing momentum from the fall, guiding the gust with his hooked fingers, Phoenix exhaled and shoved Layton back with the force of a man running into him at full speed.

"Cor!" Luke wailed. "That isn't anything they teach us!"

He had been staggered! With his hands already turned towards his chest, Phoenix struck out with his elbows. The result was thick, blunt rams of air connecting with Layton's shoulders, one after the other on either as Phoenix kept the chain going, leaving him unable to raise his arms to strike back. He only gained an opening when Phoenix swept one elbow up in an attempt to clip his hat. The blow of air fell slightly short, leaving him with a chance to dazzle Phoenix with a flaming swipe of his own. Phoenix jumped back with a panicked yelp, and Layton did the first thing he could think of. He ran into the foliage.

Taking cover in the "forest", Layton laughed as Maya shouted. "What are you two _doing_ over there?"

"The professor's teaching me how to fight!" Phoenix answered from somewhere on his left. "It's awesome!"

"Where is he now?"

"I dunno, I can't find him!"

He stifled another laugh and quietly moved deeper into the garden. How exciting this was! Luke was leaping from pillar to pillar above, most likely keeping an eye on Phoenix but not necessarily an indicator of where he was. He'd have to keep his senses sharp, or Wright might get the drop on him. He took another bite of peach, teeth scraping against the pit. It was quite tasty.

"Ah-HA!" Phoenix shouted, cartwheeling in from the right. "Found y-"

Layton whipped a roll of fire at the sound, and Phoenix yelped and leaped out of the way on one foot. He landed on the other side of the pillar, where Layton sent out another fire bolt, and for a while it was a very silly game of Whack-a-Mole with Phoenix as the mole. Layton only sent out enough fire to spook Phoenix, never letting the flames reach the plants. He was boxed in, though, with Phoenix potentially at any escape route. It would be an effort to get out of this corner. Most... puzzling. Layton took another bite of peach. How perfect!

Phoenix surprised him and advanced through two columns, legs swung high in a whirling butterfly kick. Layton punched a spear of flames towards him, aiming to startle him into landing wrong, when the oddest thing happened. The lick of fire caught into the vortex of air surrounding Phoenix, wicking it under his legs and over his head-

-and back at Layton. He only just manage to block with his free arm when Phoenix landed and made a blind grab for the peach, sending him running again.

There was no secret lessons, no advanced techniques in this part of the game. It was just fun. Layton played keep-away with the peach while Phoenix chased him, punctuating the hunt with little shouts of "tag!" and an air ball or two. Luke cheered for the both of them in equal measure, depending on who did the neatest cartwheel or whether they'd done something "Cool!" or earned a "Crikey!" Skidded to a halt before a wide wall of green beans, turning around to get his bearings, when-

"Kabe-don!" Phoenix slammed his hand into the foliage and grappled Layton's wrists in the other, finally taking a bite of the peach right out of Layton's hands. "I win!"

"Fantastic, Phoenix!" Layton praised. "You did beautifully!"

"Thanks!" Phoenix took another bite and spoke through a full mouth. "But I was just wingin' most of it."

"And yet your improvisation works wonders." He held up the peach this time, letting his friend finish off the fruit. Phoenix let his hands go as thanks. "Your style is unpolished, obviously, but it works to your benefit. You caught me by surprise more than once."

Phoenix shrugged off the compliment as a matter of manners, but he could tell that the lawyer was taking the words to heart. There was a glow about him, and his smile was infectious. "I only managed because you had a hand behind your back. You're a pretty great teacher."

"And you learn quickly." Layton tugged his hat into a comfortable place. "I have a hunch you aren't told this often enough, but you are a good friend and a brilliant mind, Phoenix Wright. I'm honored to have you at my side."

"I... wow! Thanks..." Phoenix grinned back, blushing across his cheeks. "You too... Hershel."

Hearing his name sent a thrill up Layton's spine and tugged a wide smile onto his cheeks. In the quiet that held their gaze, their only company the rippling babble of spirit water, Layton felt a-

Spirit water?

Layton checked his periphery. Phoenix did too.

Near completely submerged, Espella watched them with rapt attention, while Maya blatantly ogled the two.

"This flirting's a free pass," Maya assured them. "You're good. Please, continue."

Layton coughed into his fist. Phoenix gulped.

"Er..." Luke tried to break the tension. "Are you ready for your clothes now?"

The three of them spent the next five minutes or so drying the girl's clean clothes in silence with a delicate mix of air and firebending.

They spent another three minutes quietly bathing in the spirit pool, trying to work up their nerves again. Layton was particularly embarrassed. He hadn't felt like that in ages. It had been years. Now that he was out of that particular mood, he could rationalize it a little more clearly. It was the rush of endorphins from playing, yes, and the fact that they had vitamins and minerals in their diet for the first time in days. The effects of the spirit water, perhaps? And being free from all the collective dust of the last few days. Nothing to be embarrassed about, just warmth from the exercising and excitement from teaching. That's all it was.

Layton had his spot right in the center of the spirit pool, just deep enough to submerge him to his neck, and he had been there since they started bathing. Phoenix only now moved to sit next to him, broad shoulders peeking out above the water.

"Hey... that could've gone better." Phoenix chuckled. "But... you know, now that we have a little privacy, I meant everything I said. When we get out of here... you wanna exchange phone numbers? Be pen pals?"

The idea made him blush all over again, and Layton found it much harder to rationalize what he was feeling now. "I suppose you must live some distance away."

"Capital City of the Fire Nation..." Phoenix rubbed at his bare neck. "Guessing you don't live there too?"

He shook his head with a sad smile. "I live and work out of Zaofu."

"I've always wanted to go to Zaofu."

Layton ran his hand through his hair, a quick substitute for pulling on his hat brim. "My door will always be open to you."

"Then it's settled. Pen pals for life and a free bed if we're ever traveling." Phoenix held out his hand. "And until then... we make the most of the time we have together?"

"Of course." Rationalized or not, this felt like something to treasure. Layton took Phoenix's hand and squeezed it. "That being said... we'll need to start moving forward and finding our way out."

"It was nice to relax a little... Where do we head from here?"

"The natural place seems to be that way." Layton looked "down"stream, following the path the uphill-flowing water took from a deep passageway. It was obviously man made by machine, all bricks and metal support beams going down into the pitch dark. The stones made an abrupt shift from earthy red to glossy green so deep it was almost black. Something about it felt faintly familiar, but not enough to set off any flags in his mind. "Once our clothes are laundered and the girls have eaten their fill, we'll go."


	13. An Interlude Above

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

Note: Breaking away from the actual game rather seriously now, so would appreciate feedback. Not that I haven't been getting remarkable feedback already. Thank you so very much.

* * *

Wright hadn't called him that night. They had agreed upon that call time together. Edgeworth had carved out an allotted time from his very busy schedule in order to receive that call. After all of that effort, Wright hadn't called. He wasn't a man for the superstitious drivel Wright spouted about spirit channeling and luck, not at all. But he did go on about friendship and having faith in others, and the missed call still put a sour taste in his mouth. It nagged at his thoughts the rest of the day. It wasn't an omen; it was just a bad sign. The thought haunted him for the rest of that night while he was trying to sleep. _Wright didn't forget to talk to his friends._ Something was off. Very off.

His intuition proved right when an inquiry to the cruise company in the morning turned up that Wright and Fey had boarded the ship, but never departed.

The afternoon had him in Republic City, warrant in hand and Gumshoe at his side. He was no metalbending elite officer like Republic City's Finest- the man couldn't metalbend at all- but in matters of delicate investigating, his input would be vital. He knew Gumshoe would keep his sights on the case, especially when the witnesses they interviewed turned up tight-lipped and unsure. Some of the passengers aboard had seen a couple matching Wright and Fey's descriptions; a few more had seen them defending a blonde girl from an overzealous prosecutor. They hadn't seen Wright or Fey since. They hadn't even seen the prosecutor at all, before or after. He just seemed to disappear right after that commotion when the boat when under that one bridge.

That bridge would be the next stop.

That bridge was where they met the annoying red-haired man.

He introduced himself without asking by the name Randall Ascot. He wasn't the police, he wasn't a private investigator, he wasn't really an anything other than an obstruction to their case. He still gleefully filled them in on all his amateur detective work which led him to this bridge. His friend hadn't called him, see, had gone on a trip and was told to check in on him if he didn't make contact. Edgeworth was just about to write it off as a coincidence until Ascot's voice cracked in panic and he pleaded to know if Edgeworth had heard anything about two people, a gentleman in a top hat and a little boy in blue, who had last been seen on this bridge a day ago.

Ascot quickly joined them, and Edgeworth pressed him for what information he had. His friend, a Mr. Hershel Layton, had a terrible adventuring habit, always running off to helpless cases in the name of assistance. Edgeworth understood Ascot's frustrations. As a result, Layton made it a habit to inform his family whenever he was leaving. When Layton hadn't answered his hotel phone, his family called Ascot to go and check on him. When the hotel said Layton and his young assistant- and Edgeworth connected to the man more- had never even checked in, he'd chartered a zeppelin and got to the city overnight.

And now here they both were, eh? A prosecutor, a detective, and an archeologist on the prowl for their missing loved ones! What a story it would make! Ascot even had an address to look into, a rental apartment for a Mr. Carmine Accidenti. It was right down the road from here, very suspicious! He hadn't gotten to it yet, but what intrigue! What an adventure!

Edgeworth mentally dialed up his efforts. He must find Wright. Quickly. And get out of Republic City.

Edgeworth was appropriately humiliated and horrified when the trio found the apartment immolated and under investigation.

Badge-flashing and warrants got him nowhere. Even for the police, the officers on the scene were tight-lipped and obfuscating. Gumshoe pulled the two aside and informed them that the lingo they were using meant they'd been privately paid to keep every little detail a complete secret. All his questions were going to do was get them funny looks and questions from their superiors. If they were going to get information, they were going to have to do it all tricky-like.

In the meantime, Ascot popped into a house and called the nearest hospital and got Carmine Accidenti's room number.

Give the annoying man credit, his charm came in handy.

Accidenti was in terrible shape. Covered in bandages and only partially healed from severe burns, his talking was not entirely lucid. He raved on and on about underground tunnels, secrets in books, hidden machines, drugs he couldn't specify, and "Espella". Gumshoe kept one hand on Accidenti's bandaged shoulder and another shoe-less foot on the ground. His seismic sense barely worked through bandages, a bed, and the floor, but from everything Gumshoe could sense, he was telling the complete truth. Or at least, he believed everything he said was the truth. Ascot scribbled everything down in a notepad. Edgeworth mentally tried to connect the rambling ravings, but after four minutes of disjointed and morphine-muddled mumblings, Accidenti fell asleep from exhaustion.

Edgeworth, confined by the law, bemoaned their luck.

Ascot, liberated from social decency, promptly rifled through Carmine's jacket and pants pockets which were slung over a nearby chair. Inside were a great many drafts of a letter addressed to one Hershel Layton and a flask of hot spirit water. Along with the drafts, Ascot found page after page of notes furiously taken on paper scraps, pocket journals, and vellum. Maps, flowcharts, idea webs, thought puzzle solutions: all of them given equal weight and rammed against each other on the page in a desperate attempt to save space. It looked the work of a madman to Edgeworth, but Randall turned them over and deciphered them as if he were fluent in the language. A few threads popped up repeatedly: owls, books, a town called Labyrinthia, a company called Labrelum, and men named Newton Belduke and Arthur Cantabella.

Gumshoe looked up the name in a nearby phone book and set off himself for the main office. Pleasant chatter with the secretary ensued. He didn't mention he was a cop, just that he was from the Fire Nation and his buddy knew a little about the guy. The secretary, charmed to know something, told him a lot: Labrelum made pharmaceuticals, their co-founders were a Mr. Cantabella and a Mr. Belduke, and despite being a relatively young company they were doing quite well and hoped to expand outside of the Republic City and surrounding territories. The company heads were, of course, too busy to talk to just anyone. Mr. Belduke was out of the country on sales, while Mr. Cantabella was only in the office sporadically even on a good day. He had health complications, the secretary didn't really know the details but Cantabella coughed a lot. Probably something in his lungs, which was weird. He made drugs for a living, why would he let himself be sick? Well, maybe he couldn't help it. It was Belduke that originated their big money-making formula, Mr. Cantabella was more of the marketing man. The conversation wandered after that, but Gumshoe had names and leads to follow.

While Gumshoe went to chat, Edgeworth and Ascot left to hunt. The phone book must have been out of date, as the Belduke house was long empty, almost decrepit. Signs of life remained, like a little girl's pedal car and a garden trowel stuck in a flower bed. However everything had long since grown over with weeds and grass. Edgeworth found himself the lookout to Ascot's brazen disregard for the laws. Only his desire for answers allowed him to let Ascot slip into an unlocked window on the alley side of the house. How... compromising. He hoped Ascot's obnoxiously white suit got dirty.

Inside, Ascot could easily piece together life in the Belduke household like a child's crossword puzzle, and he relayed everything back to Edgeworth in detailed notes and a few stolen trinkets. A nuclear family of a man, his wife, and their little daughter Eve. Eve was very young when they left, with a little friend about her age who came over for sleepovers and sometimes stayed for dinner, if the extra high chair and booster seat were any indication. Newton and his wife were both fond of plants, especially flowers. The house was decorated with them. They were pressed into books. Eve had storybooks about them, some of them written and illustrated by Arthur Cantabella and "starring" Eve and her little friend- Espella! There she was! Newton had even made a career out of his love for herbology, bottling and pickling and extracting the essences from various plants he'd grown in the back yard.

Then something happened. Something terrible happened to Belduke's wife. Her things laid completely untouched while Belduke's and Eve's things were hurriedly packed. Clothing and toiletries gone, empty spaces in the closets where luggage had been, and much to Randall's dismay, food left in the refrigerator long after the power had been turned off. Eve couldn't have been older than 6 when it all happened, the poor dear. They had never come back.

Ascot came away with a few odds and ends, the most important being a little black book. In it were names, almost a hundred names, but only one of significance. Arthur Cantabella's address, the one from the phone book, had been crossed out. He must have moved at some point.

It was late by the time they regrouped, with Edgeworth booking them all rooms in a hurry so they wouldn't be separated. The next morning metaphorically slammed them into a wall as they struggled to find that address. The house number was a single digit, and despite pouring over every map they could find, none of them cold even locate the street. It took Edgeworth's eye wandering over the bay area in a fit of insanity to find it. The "street name" was no such thing. Cantabella made his home on a private island in the middle of Yue Bay.

Gumshoe cursed the rich and their extravagance, and Ascot acted offended for a moment before Edgeworth pulled them both back into the chase.

After this, another wall. Not a single person was willing to take them out to that island. Oh, everyone had something to say about it, of course. Major ferries didn't go out to the island, but complained that it was an eyesore. The dark grey concrete tower jutting out of the rock was kind of spooky. Local boaters and fishermen told how Cantabella had the entire place built around one little heap o' nothin' rock with a water spout some twenty years ago, just as his company was getting big. The giant tower of a boathouse was eccentric, but it made them a little money whenever Cantabella paid them to bring groceries from the shore. Never anything perishable, oddly. Even the airbenders on Air Temple Island remembered that Cantabella used to have a wife and daughter who never left the house. The younger monks would fly over to the tower and talk to them through the windows on the top floor. That was over ten years ago now, though, and they hadn't seen either of them since. Only Arthur Cantabella still lived there, and they only knew that because he'd get angry and yell at them if they flew too close to the windows. Rumors bounced around that she'd divorced him, or that they'd died, but none of them really knew.

The mental math, and it couldn't have been a coincidence, put all their disappearances around the same time. The Beldukes and the Cantabellas over a decade ago, and now their friends at this point in time, all gone from the face of the earth. Answers needed to be found fast, before Phoenix and the others were lost to time and bureaucracy.

Waiting until nightfall, Edgeworth had Gumshoe and Ascot meet him at the smallest boat launch on Yue Bay. He bent the cold water of the bay into an ice canoe and quietly paddled them out to Cantabella's island in the dark. He didn't find himself waterbending in Capitol City often- it was hard to casually fling around water in the center of an active caldera- so he didn't pretend like the opportunity to bend his native element wasn't a thrill and a privilege.

Ascot showed his gratitude by throwing himself out of the boat as soon as they made landfall and complaining.

"What am I supposed to tell Angela when I get home? 'Oh, sorry dear, wish I could've sent Hershel your regards, but I spent the trip breaking into houses and freezing my arse off for an hour in an ice kayak in the middle of the night'!"

Gumshoe settled well enough on the weathered concrete shore of the island. Whatever little rock the place was built on, it wasn't visible anymore. The tower was straight concrete down past the water line. "Wasn't that cold to me, pal."

"And now I'm wet where I was sitting on the-"

"If I may remind everyone," Edgeworth quietly commanded, "That we are, in face, trying to be somewhat inconspicuous." He hooked his hands out and bent the water out of all their clothes.

Ascot indignantly crossed his arms. "We're already on the windward side, facing away from the city. I don't see why you're so nervous."

Edgeworth crossed his own arms. "I'm not nervous. We are breaking and entering. Things like this require great caution, or so I have been lead to believe. You, meanwhile, are wearing reflective white clothing."

"It can't be helped," Randall sighed with a toss of his wild hair. "This is my burglary suit."

"Hey, pal, you do remember that we're cops, right?" Gumshoe whimpered. "It ain't like we're common citizens just 'cause it's not our jurisdiction..."

"Between petty thievery and the lives of our friends-"

Edgeworth raised a hand. Spirits but Ascot reminded him of someone back home... "Gentlemen... I must insist we hurry. My willingness to bend the law is being stretched to its breaking point."

"Right." Randall secured the straps to his backpack. "Mr. Gumshoe, if you would?"

"I sure hope we're savin' Wright from something dangerous..." Gumshoe set his hands against the sheer concrete wall. "Or else we're getting in a lot of trouble for this..."

Concrete was hard to bend. It was like moving a spoon through thick batter, but unlike batter, concrete could shatter if moved improperly. Gumshoe rolled his palms and shifted his feet against the floor. Rooted like this, he could feel the little eddies and whorls where the concrete had been poured. He only had to pull them out of the wall just enough for Randall to get a foothold, and together they could slowly make their way to the tower's only window at the very top.

Ascot, for his part, masterfully scaled the steep incline. His eyes were trained for this sort of work, seeing the slight change in the concrete from its reflection in the bright moonlight. He kept moving as the footholds disappeared behind him, feeling gravity tugging at his back the higher he went, until he could put his fingers on the windowsill. He made the last stretch in one big leap and shimmied onto the narrow ledge. It took a wiggle and his bank card to pop open the lock, but once he had it, he was off like a shot into the dark room.

His pocket torch held him over until he could find the lightswitch. The room was a mess of papers, books, and curiousities rounded up into their own piles. Signalled by the light flipping on, Gumshoe suddenly popped into the room via a column of water, followed by a winded and damp Edgeworth on his own.

"If it weren't..." he gasped, "For the full moon..."

"And excellent timing besides." Randall's attention pulled to the window, and he shut it tight behind them. "There's a storm rolling in. We have until it passes to search the house undisturbed, no doubt. Even the police wouldn't be out here in that weather."

"We're the police!" Gumshoe stated, offended. "And we're out in that weather!"

" _You're_ the police, Mr. Gumshoe," Randall reminded him. "I'm the one who's opening all the doors you don't have the nerve to open yourself."

They both went silent, awkwardly looking to each other for the interruption that didn't come.

"Edgeworth?" Ascot asked, miffed. "Aren't you going to tell us to be quiet? You skipped your cue!"

"Look at this."

Edgeworth had simply taken the first book he'd put his hands on and opened it, then set it down on a desk for the other two to view. It was a photo album. The picture in the center, the largest of otherwise normal-sized 5x7s, showed two men, two women, and two little girls. It fit their investigations so far. "Do you think one of these is Cantabella?"

Gumshoe hovered over his shoulder. Ascot hooked around his arm and pointed to the taller of the two men in the photo. Blonde, wizened, pale. "Probably that one. He has that look."

Edgeworth scowled. This conversation had the potential to go in... unsavoury directions. "What look?"

"That look!" Of the part of the Earth States that borders Water Tribe territory and you find names like 'Cantabella'. You have the lighter skin from the Earth States and the yellow hair that comes from being close to the spirit portals. Look at his moppet." Randall pointed to the little blond child with him. "Blue eyes, like her mother here. They have North written all over them."

"So you think this is Belduke and Cantabella?"

"Not just them, but their whole families."

"They do have cute little girls," Gumshoe noted. "Look at their little pink shoes."

"Very fashionable for little girls 10 years ago." Edgeworth noted the translucent jelly-like plastic. "Our timelines match up."

Gumshoe tried his luck at grabbing something important and just took the first thing that he could see. Either _everything_ in this office was important, or it was dumb luck, but whatever it was it spilled all over the floor in a heap.

People, dozens of people, all marked "PENDING" in big red letters on the paper next to their pictures. Nearly written off as employee portfolios, Edgeworth's attention honed on the fact that nearly every photo looked... cadaverous. Every were uniformly unfocused and blank. All photos were taken against a stucco- "No, that's clay!"- an earthen wall.

"A clay wall? In this day and age?" Edgeworth held up a paper to read. A name, a birth date, another date which seemed to average ten years ago but not consistently, a "reason for admittance" and a list of... transgressions, which ranged from "bumped a machine" to "questioning" and "actively seeking time away from others". Underneath this list was stamped the word "SHADE" and a printed list of chores. It was all relatively innocuous things, like "fruit picking" and "laundry". None of the pieces together made sense.

Gumshoe scratched his neck. "I'm confused."

"It's paperwork through the looking glass..." was all Edgeworth could muster, a more flowery way of saying that _he_ was confused.

Ascot poured over the files with an intense, silence interest. "I know some of these names. They're all missing persons. Some of them years old, presumed dead."

That shook the prosecutor. "How do you know?"

"I was a missing person..." he spoke through a dark shadow over his eyes. That jubilant smirk was gone, and for the first time, Edgeworth could see the age marking his face. This fellow was well older than him, and the grave worry in his face showed it. "For eighteen years, presumed dead. I try to make knowing missing people my business."

Edgeworth's respect for him quickly went from the floor to through the roof. "Admirable."

"It doesn't explain why all of these are here..." Ascot continued. "Not unless Cantabella was the reason they-"

The next file belonged to Luke Triton, and Ascot screamed.

All the files were there, for all four of them, hurriedly hand-written and all bearing a blank-eyed photo. Swaths of the papers were left black, nothing at all but white space. Maya Fey and Phoenix Wright's were particularly, suspiciously, bare.

All of them dated two days ago.

Ascot threw the files into his bag as the door to the office burst open, and a wave of men shrouded in violet cloaks flooded the office space. Gumshoe cracked a few on the head with books and a chair, but more would pour in every second. Only Edgeworth whipping water in from the windowsill and filling the room with mist shrouded them enough to run for the door, and the three of them descended the stairs past a child's room and into the base of the tower, down, down further than they had climbed to enter the window, into the dark...


	14. An Interlude Below

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

Notes: Another short interlude before returning to the main story.

* * *

Nothing in his life had shaken him more than the sight of Defender Wright and Sir Layton at the bottom of The Pit, alive and well. He had spared no steps in his bending, pushed all of the same veins of earth he had bent in the years and years before. He had crushed enemies and good friends alike within that dread machinery. Yet Kira still walked the earth. Yet Wright and Layton and their assorted apprentices stood at the harmless bottom of The Pit and smiled back at him, and with a fire in their very hands wished him good luck. What was once a coherent narrative in his mind had been thrown into disarray by one man. Rather, by two men and a few collected children.

Perhaps... this was like the trial. Perhaps, yes, he was only missing one vital piece to have this tale fall into its proper order. As they left his sight, those four strangers and the Storyteller's beloved daughter, Barnham's resolve was set. As Inquisitor, it was his duty to discover the truth, just as they set forth to do. Where they searched below, he would search above. Throwing the courthouse doors open, he made full haste back to the scene of the incidenet: the home of Alchemist Newton Belduke.

He arrived to the arrest of Jean Greyerl. His officers held the tiny woman's arms aloft, and amidst her cries of pain they shouted, "Sir, we've caught her! The Alchemist's murderer!"

He straightened himself up before his officers. "On what grounds?"

The question staggered all three of them, Greyerl included. Barnham thought he felt the earth itself still under his feet before he sensed the collective eyes of the rest of his officers on the back of his head.

"But... but she's a firebender!" one officer protested. "We saw her bending the fireplace- uh- flames as we battled the Avatar!"

"Then detain her for being a firebender," Barnham commanded. "But she is by no means under arrest for the Alchemist's murder. I dare say she's not under arrest at all. Last I remembered, Greyerl was a born-and-bred Labyrinthian, not an agent of the Fire Nation."

"But-"

"And she was the one to alert the guard of the fugitive Defender Wright in her household."

His men were stammering like idiots and tightening their grip on Greyerl's fragile arm. Her face pinched and her skin was going pale with fear, and yet they only had minds- what little ones they had, for their "arrest." "But sir- firebend-"

"Send the Inquisition to investigate her parents, if you must have something!" Barnham ordered with a sigh. He dropped to his knee before Greyerl. "Pardon the inconvenience, Miss Greyerl. We have disturbed you and your home. Permit me to search the Alchemist's study and replace whatever has been moved."

Greyerl shivered, and with a terrified tremor in her voice, she pleaded, "Have mercy on my parents, please! Please, sir, they aren't even benders! I don't know why I have these powers, but they're not bad people! _I'm_ not a bad person! I love my city! I don't want to hurt anyone!"

Barnham nodded solemnly, assuring Jean and quieting her panic. "Hold her in the kitchen of the house until I give you the word. Have Vigilante Foxy accompany her if she needs the privy."

"Yes, sir!" His officers, and he mentally took their names for future reprimanding, grappled Jean's arms and forced her into a deep bow. "Be grateful for Inquisitor Barnham's mercy, traitor!"

"The truth-seers will put you through the wringer once you're in a cell!" The officers hauled her to her feet and dragged her to the kitchen and out of Barnham's sight.

It was the usual conduct for firebenders. Barnham vividly remembered every time he himself had treated a firebender with such open contempt. Doing such to a murderer and enemy of the city was justifiable and even somewhat cathartic. Doing the same to the little girl that used to wrap his tea leaves made his chest burn with guilt. It hurt him. It felt wrong somewhere deep in his chest and in the back of his head. She was a child, and she was being treated like a monster only because of her bending.

This couldn't be right. It couldn't be. It thumped in his head. He had to get back to work if he was to find the papers Wright spoke of. Barnham turned on his heel and stepped into the Alchemist's house.

It was a familiar and short walk to the study, even through all the clutter. He had turned over that crime scene time and time again. He could reconstruct that room from memory if he had to. It was that very fact that drew his eyes to the papers on the floor and their faint writing. Heedless to the guard posted to the back wall, Barnham lifted the papers to his nose. They smelled, for lack of a better word, toasted. The flour-puffed baker had his hands all over the things, no doubt, but that didn't account for the heated scent. The top-hat wearing one, perhaps? Curious, Barnham held the papers over the guard's candle. Before his eyes, and before the guard could protest, the words darkened on the page.

"Witchcraft!" his officer gasped.

Barnham read the page swiftly. Witchcraft indeed, and very suspicious. Why would an ink only made visible by fire be used to communicate with the Storyteller? And why did it smell like lemons? Every word he read further broke his heart. Belduke spoke of the love of his aide, of his little daughter who Barnham never knew, of the ache in his heart at the sight of the Bell Tower, and his inability to go on in his grief. The details eluded him, for the Alchemist spoke in riddles and allusions, but the words were those of a broken man. The only thing which made total sense to him was Belduke detailing his suicide by poison. The black mood over the Alchemist's heart took his life, not Jean Greyerl. He had a heartbroken, shy little girl imprisoned in her own home for the crime of... of what? Of losing her mentor to suicide. Of alerting the Inquisitors to intruders. For being an Earth Kingdom firebender.

He shuffled the papers back into order and rubbed at his temple. "My head hurts..."

A deep voice from behind him spoke. "I shall have the guard fetch you water."

He turned and stood at attention for Her Highness, High Inquisitor Darklaw. His immediate and only superior besides the Storyteller, the highest civilian authority, High Inquisitor Darklaw rose from a low villager to the royal silks within his own lifetime. Barely any older than him, she stood at the very right hand of the Storyteller himself. She stood tall and proud, too, with long black hair and a sharp intelligent ace and flinty eyes. He had the honor of working across from her in the Hall of Inquisition every day, and he still had to fight a flush of heat to his cheeks and a knot in his throat to speak to her clearly.  
"My lady."

"Have you apprehended the fugitives?"

"No." He hesitated to answer in full, momentarily and reflexively ashamed he had let his quarry escape again. He had to keep his mind about him, though, as well as his reputation before the High Inquisitor. "I lost their trail. I took to the crime scene instead, and recovered vital evidence to the Belduke case."

It was in that moment that Barnham felt, perhaps, he was on the right track. Darklaw's eyes flashed in the candle light like he had never seen before. It was stunning, but it also made him nervous. That look on her face was not joy, nor was it fear, but it was almost both at once. It stole the very breath from her throat. Barnham's voice stole away from him, and he passed the papers to her in utter silence and let her read over them.

"What is this?" she asked finally.

"A suicide note," he told her. "Written by his own hand and addressed to the Storyteller. Some manner of trickery made the ink invisible until exposed to an open flame."

Her eyes flew over the words in a frenzy. "Who discovered this?"

"If Jean Greyerl is to be believed, it was the defender and the man in the top hat."

"You are relieved of this case."

"I-" The headache pierced through his clouded mind, and he shook the fuzzy noise out of his ears. "Excuse me?"

Darklaw turned and left immediately, taking long fast strides out of the house. Barnham followed her swiftly. This was unheard of! "My lady, why-"

When the High Inquisitor spoke, everyone listened. When the High Inquisitor rose her voicee, everyone stopped and ran from other rooms to listen. Barnham found himself surrounded by what had been his team of investigators, and the guards holding Jean Greyerl between them, just outside the Alchemist's front door. "The fugitives have escaped with the Storyteller's daughter, Espella. Find everyone associated with them and arrest them immediately."

"My lady!" Barnham exclaimed. "Every one of them? On what charge? With all due respect-"

The High Inquisitor bore down upon him with all her presence, stunning him to silence and making him flinch. His men surrounded him to ogle at the spectacle he'd made in questioning her orders. "If I had your _due respect_ , you would follow these orders without question, _Inquisitor Barnham_."

"But-"

"Am I to understand your sympathies lie with the Fire Nation?"

Panic welled up in his chest as his guards- his own men!- began to draw their swords on him. "No, High Inquisitor! My city has my loyalty, completely and utterly!"

"Then you will carry out my orders as I give them, when I give them, and how I give them!" Her eyes blazed as anger contorted her face into an enraged snarl. "Is that clear?!"

"Yes, my lady!" He dropped to his knee and lowered his head. "For Labyrinthia!"

He dared not raise his eyes, but he could keep his gaze on her feet. Darklaw was often commanding, but she usually reserved a brusque and violent tone for firebenders. To see her erupt into real fury terrified him. It filled his chest and strangled his throat as he tried to control his breathing. He was the leader of the Inquisitors; Darklaw all but ruled Labyrinthia. One more errant slip of his tongue and he could be dead on the spot, or thrown into prison to be cast into The Pit-

Thoughts collided in his mind as if a blade had been raised against them, and with a mighty thrust they shattered against each other. Being cast into the Pit would not kill him, nor would he stand idly by and allow himself to be captured- or worse- for nothing more than questioning. He life was his own, and his thoughts did not belong to Her Highness. He was his own man!

His headache cracked into a manageable thump between his ears. Darklaw's feet stood still, watching him, waiting for him, before they retreated from his vision. The other officers put away their swords, and with Darklaw gone, he stood.

"Go about your orders, but quietly," he told the guards. "Be civil. Do not cause panic. I will speak to the baker woman, and ask her to come in for questioning."

"Yes sir!"

They scattered. He stood. He waited until they were all gone before rounding a corner and heading away from town square. Patty Eclair could take shelter in his home; it would not be searched. In the meantime, he had a route to investigate. Where did Espella keep disappearing to...


	15. The Underground: The Fourth Day 2

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

Notes: Never publish at 1 in the morning. Whenever I woke up and re-read, I realized I, in my hurry, had left out something important. This has been been restored, and this very long chapter is now complete.

* * *

Life, it seemed, enjoyed putting Layton on stairs. The spirit spring split what would have been one enormous staircase into two wide ones, so they obliged to take the left-hand side and made their way downward. While the massive hall was lit from above by bare bulbs and below by the glowing spirit spring, the dark stone walls sapped the light right back into its cold grip and kept it away from them. The high vaulted ceilings kept claustrophobia at bay, but the oppressive silence of the place kept even Maya fearfully quiet. It took the five of them pulling together, in a physical sense, to make their way down those awful stairs. They let Layton lead the tight huddle as they descended together.

Minutes of uneventful anxiety passed with none so much as a roachrat, and the little group started to breathe again. Luke let go of his arm, the girls from his shoulders and Phoenix his hand. Espella spoke up first. "I've not seen stone like this before."

"You wouldn't have," Layton said plainly. "It's not indigenous to this area."

Phoenix marveled. "You can tell that just by looking?"

"It's granite." Layton could tell that even from a distance. He could confirm it more if he could reach out and touch it, but he could see the obvious grains even in the low light. "There's no source of granite anywhere near Republic City, and I honestly doubt we're far from Republic City."

"But what if we are, professor?" Luke worried and wrung his hands. "What if they did take us far away?"

"Then we could use this stone as a means to locate ourselves."

"For real." Maya seemed incredulous. "You can tell where we are by the rock."

"Hey, it _is_ the Professor," Phoenix defended. "He's pretty great at... everything."

The comment made him blush, which he hid with a tug to his hat brim. "Archeology owes much to construction materials and matching them to locations. I recognize this kind of granite from the central Earth Kingdom, very far inland. It is sometimes seen in older structures, but it was reserved for the Earth Kingdom elite. Skilled earthbenders were required to quarry and shape it. If we are still near Republic City, this stone would have to have been imported."

Luke piped up, "But who would import this much stone and then put it all underground?"

It was perhaps a rhetorical question, but it gave Layton pause. He was no stranger to complex underground structures, and neither was Luke by this point. Luke raised a fair argument. Heavy, well-polished granite, machine-cut by the look of the fine flat edges, and likely imported from the central Earth States. He could perhaps wrack his brain, trace these to something more specific. Knowledge and familiarity with a structure like this tickled at the back of his mind, but he couldn't place it without getting close enough to inspect it.

He was ripped from his thoughts by the girls grappling his arms, and before he could yelp, Phoenix threw a hand over his mouth.

Out of the darkness from the bottom steps, a silent march of people approached them. Each was clad in a long, body-concealing violet cloak. Hoods covered their heads, while gas masks covered their faces. Heights ranged from a little shorter than Luke to a little taller than Phoenix, from thin waifs to broad walls. They cut an eerie and steady path up the stairs towards them, only somewhat mitigated by the fact that they were all holding wicker baskets with juice stains. They must have been on their way to the garden to collect the ripe fruit.

The head of the pack stopped before them while the rest passed by, none of them so much as turning their heads. An old woman's voice cracked out from behind the mask. "Where are your robes?"

"Laundry," said Espella.

"Didn't get them yet," said Luke.

"Tailor," said Phoenix.

Maya faked a grin and pointed to her sleeve of her purple robe. "Transfer student?"

The woman bent a handful of spirit water into her palm and with an effortless flex of her fingers sharpened it into a dagger of ice.

"Stay to your task, sister," spoke the largest figure of the group. Layton felt Phoenix twitch beside him. Something about that voice was familiar, even through the muffling gas mask. "I shall bring them to The Mistress."

"Will you?" the crone asked, bewildered. She bent the dagger back into the spring. "If you do not complete your task, you cannot return."

"Then complete _your_ task so _you_ may return. I will do this for you, sister."

The crone bowed deeply, and with a cracking voice thanked him and rejoined the others. The last of the robed ones disappeared up the stairs as silently as they came.

The tall one pulled his mask and hood away with a gasp, and out from underneath it came Zacharias Barnham.

"Hey!" Phoenix finally released Layton's mouth. "What are you doing here?!"

"Yeah, you're supposed to be our mole on the top side, Barnham!" Maya accused. "What gives?"

"The High Inquisitor has ordered all persons associated with the five of you arrested and imprisoned." Barnham pulled at the neck of his cloak, which brought Layton's attention to the hem. It now hung a few good inches above the floor, exposing his feet in a pair of too-small stockings. He must have been hunching before. "I defied her orders, and instead traced your steps and found myself in a tunnel. I knew you had been there from the flour on the ground."

Phoenix gave an "oy".

"As I was investigating, I was attacked by a number of these... people. I defeated them in combat, then stole the garments of the largest one. When they came to retrieve him, I impersonated him and followed them back to this place."

"They didn't recognize you?" Layton asked.

"They don't seem to care who you are under this wretched thing," he explained. "So long as you're wearing it, you're either 'brother' or 'sister' and nothing more."

"How long have you been down here?" asked Espella.

"No more than an hour, if I might guess." Barnham's voice took on a softer, assuring tone. "Before I left, I had your mentor Patty take refuge in my home. She is, as far as I am aware, safe from the High Inquisitor."

"Oh!" Espella made a soft noise, something relieved and nervous all at once. "Oh thank you! Oh dear Aunt Patty..."

"In the meantime, my mind is vexed by these beings, and the place I have found here... please, come with me." He pulled his mask and hood over his head again, and resumed his hunch. "Stay close to me and say I'm guiding you if they ask questions. That should keep us all out of trouble."

Phoenix gave Layton a small smile, breaking the tension as Barnham turned to lead them the rest of the way down. "At least we all get to cling to somebody else now."

Layton chuckled a little and fell into step with Barnham. "I've never identified more closely with a life preserver before."

The stairs leveled out after a minute more of walking. It opened up to a chamber with an even higher ceiling and even more of the cloaked figures. They walked along the walls on wooden catwalks, in and out of shacks built into crevices and off of buttresses, and even an unlucky few were precariously hanging from rafters in the ceiling. The hooded folk pushed wheelbarrows of earth and stone, picked the leaves and stems from fruit, and sat at the edge of the spirit stream washing and laundering clothes they had seen the Labyrinthian people wearing.

All of it in complete silence.

Barnham kept them walking, steadily forward, and Layton surveyed the chamber. The wooden structures were all very new, and probably built by the hooded folk themselves. It was the room underneath it that had him looking harder, because he swore he had seen this some place before. It wasn't coming to him quickly. The walking, the people, the life in the room was all very distracting. He held onto Phoenix's arm to keep himself grounded.

Phoenix barely spoke enough to be heard. "I think I've seen this in a history book somewhere..."

Barnham shushed him. They passed quickly through that room compared to the long walk down the stairs, although that was most likely Barnham rushing them through. They exited through a doorway on the other side, down another fast flight of stairs and into another chamber. Maya grumped under her breath about going down another set of stairs so soon.

It opened into a massive space. The source of the spring took the center stage of the room, flowing up into the air in a reverse waterfall and going through the ceiling above to become the steam on the previous floor. There were hooded people on this floor, but no shanties or shacks.

There were flowers. Thousands of flowers covering the floor like a carpet, red and blue and purple, all grew out of the ground surrounding the spring and thick enough to start to creep up the walls. The figures wicked away at them with scythes as they grew back into place, sorting out the colors and placing them, petal by petal, into massive wooden vats to cook over open fire. The room reeked of ink.

Layton looked up, recognized the walls above, and gasped.

Luke jumped at the profound sound. "Professor?"

"This is a Dai Li chamber..." Layton pointed out each terrible sign. "The old Earth Kingdom symbol on the wall, and the smaller rooms with metal doors. No windows, no stairs. It takes earthbending to reach them."

Luke cocked his head. "What's a Dai Li?"

" _Ooooo_ ," Maya gasped, "You're not old enough to learn about it in school yet. The Dai Li were all kinds of messed up! They used to run the whole Earth Kingdom under the Earth King's nose! They would assassinate people, and they'd kidnap people, and they'd brainwash folks by keeping them underground and- uh- _um_ -"

The weight of what Maya was saying seemed to hit her and Phoenix at the same time. Maya went quiet while Phoenix started talking. "Wait- no, no no no they did the thing, after the Uniter Wars, the Earth States went through every single state and dismantled every Dai Li cave! There aren't anymore! They couldn't have missed one!"

"Wait, you mean that story Monk Jinora tells?" Luke asked. "About how Monk Kai was kidnapped by those Earth Kingdom folks to train him into a super soldier? That was forever ago!"

"Th- that's what I'm saying!" Phoenix shouted. "This shouldn't be here! There aren't anymore Dai Li places left!"

"Unless..." Layton swallowed hard. "It's new."

The Dai Li were a horrible mark on history. The secret police of the Earth Kingdom, they operated even into the lifetime of the last Avatar. They were known for their cruel, mind-wiping hypnotism of entire sections of the population in order to enforce a false sense of peace. They were the hands that lead the kingdom in secret through subterfuge and murder. Their massive underground bases, made of solid hard-to-bend stone and cut off from the outside world, were nearly impossible to find until the Air Nation stepped in to aid the search. Even with their help, weeding out the last of the cultish society lasted even into his lifetime, as those fanatical enough to keep the memory of their "heritage" alive would stop at nothing to hoard away artifacts and recreate that awful past.

Someone had taken an extra step.

"Wait... y-you don't think..." Phoenix ventured. "Someone put... _all of this_ together..."

"After the search had officially ended..." Layton tugged at his collar, trying to breathe. "I hope not... Espella?"

Espella was walking ahead on her own. Luke went after her, calling to get her attention, but she didn't respond. Something in her blue eyes was far away, her gaze falling past the flowers and the vats and landing on the far wall, under the Earth Kingdom seal. Barnham kept watch behind while they stayed close to her, trying to call her out of her fugue. She didn't stop until she reached the base of the far wall, and it was only then that Layton looked up upon it.

Written there in the Storyteller's handwriting were names. The print was about as big as his hand, and even then the wall fit hundreds of names; the quickest mental math he could wrangle put the count at around three hundred. He put his hand to the wall and ran his fingers over the stone. Granite, just like the rest of the chamber. These edges weren't precisely cut. There was a softness to it, like a paintbrush had been taken to the stone. He couldn't believe it.

"Barnham, confer with me." He waved Barnham over. "These words were bent into the stone, weren't they?"

Barnham took a moment to take off his costume's gloves and felt along the glyphs. "I think they were. What are all these names?"

Luke pointed the professor at one. "I think we can guess this one..."

It was bigger than the others. Espella stood directly in front of it, obscuring the given name... but not the family name.

Cantabella.

"This wall gives me the chills..." Barnham spoke.

Maya agreed. "Yeah, it looks like one of those giant memorial walls."

"I worry it is a memorial wall..." Layton turned his attention to Espella. "You had mentioned your father never spoke of your mother, correct?"

"Fire..."

Espella stumbled back from the wall, clutching her head in her hands. Her voice stayed low and soft as she spoke. "Fire, there's fire everywhere. My mother's in there, get her out. The dragon-"

Phoenix waved over to Maya and Barnham. "Okay nobody panic, she's done this before. Luke, Maya, Barnham- um- help her out!"

"-the dragon, the dragon is coming-" Espella fell to her knees.

Layton gathered her up by the shoulders. "Espella, listen to my voice. Breathe deeply, stay calm."

"- I didn't mean to, it's my fault everyone's dead-" Espella's eyes were blank and cold, pupils shrunken to pinpoints so the blue of her eyes was striking and dead to the world. Maya and Luke fretted at her sides. Barnham froze, unable to make himself do anything without direction. "I killed them all, I killed them all in fire, it's all my fault-"

"OO! Spirit water!" Maya yelled. "Maybe if we splash it in her face it'll shock her out of it!"

"J-just a moment!" Barnham bent a chunk of granite into his hand and mashed it into a bowl. "Hold her there!"

"I'm sorry I'm so sorry I didn't mean to do it-"

Barnham gathered the bowl of water, rushed it over, and threw it into Espella's face. She came back to reality with a gasp and a sob, and she immediately buried her face in Layton's coat. There was only the sound of her struggling to breathe for a tense minute, the rest of them gathered around her to see the reaction.

She coughed, and the fear fell away into her normal, placid expression. "I'm... I'm sorry, when did we get here? What a lovely room. Lovely flowers."

No one spoke. Barnham had left his mask on, so his face was unreadable. Phoenix's expression was panicked, all of his fear and confusion and searching for answers written plain on his face. Maya and Luke had both gone pale, pulling each other into for comfort.

Layton had seen a few... he hesitated to call it a breakdown. Panic attacks and university students were not an entirely uncommon pair, after all, but... Espella had disappeared into her own mind, and it seemed not even she could tell where she'd gone. He'd been so wrapped up in his own mental calculations that he'd completely neglected to watch her, and she'd fallen into this state as a result. He was reminded at Phoenix's attempt at crowd control that it wasn't even the first time she had done so in his presence. She was starting to garner onto their silence, and Espella was watching him closely, looking for any clue as to what she'd gone through.

"Did..." Espella guessed. "Did something happen?"

It would have been so easy to blow the whole thing over as a fluke... but Layton nodded. "Yes. Do you remember, Espella, that night in the library? You were scared by the fires and ran home."

"I... did?" Espella shook her head. "No... I don't remember, Sir Layton... I'm sorry."

"It is nothing to apologize for." He stood them both up, keeping a tight hold on her shoulders. "You seemed to panic at the sight of the name on that wall."

"It..." She cleared her throat. "It's my mother's name. She's dead."

"I'm very sorry to hear that." Layton moved aside to let Maya hug Espella. "Do you know why her name would be here? Do you want to look further into it?"

Espella shook her head. "No... not now, we have much left to uncover, right Inquisitor Barnham?"

"There is one more door..." Barnham spoke. "That leads to stairs, I mean. I can't open it myself. There seems to be a mechanism for it, but it's... puzzling."

"Puzzling, you say?" Layton gave Barnham the lead again. "Show us, please."

"Meanwhile, you stick with me and Luke," Maya told Espella, and within seconds Maya had latched onto her in a tight hug. "The Cheer-Up Squad! We're the best antidote for freak-outs there is, aren't we Luke?"

"Um- I think so?" Luke picked up. "Although I'm not sure we're the best at grammar."

The cloaked ones paid no mind to them. The growing party trampled their way through a path Barnham had made earlier, heedless of the red flowers. It was a bit conspicuous- to Layton anyway- that Barnham had to blaze the trail in the first place.

Phoenix fell into step with Layton, taking up the rare rear while the children stayed closer to Barnham. "I'm noticing a pattern, I think. Hear me out: so the Dai Li would hypnotize people. We're in a Dai Li place full of these red flowers, which were in the Alchemist's house."

"And the flowers, when cooked and processed," Layton continued. "Smell like the ink used to write the Story."

"Which we smelled at some point-"

"-and afterwards found ourselves in this place, and you without your memories."

"Maybe somebody in with the Dai Li built this place because of the flowers." Phoenix cradled his chin in his hand, and Layton mirrored the posture. "Chemical brainwashing instead of hand-hypnotizing each person by hand."

"Allowing it to be done on a massive scale."

"It's one of those 'crazy ideas that's cruel enough to work'- no wait, I think I have that backwards."

"No, my friend, I think you have that entirely right." Layton stopped just short of walking into Maya's back, while Phoenix bumped him softly.

"One of the few occasions where I don't want to be right..."

The door he lead them to was so untouched it might as well have been another wall. It was a shame, too. It had lovely stoneworking. The glowing crystals endemic to Labyrinthia were set seamlessly into the light and smoothed marble. They formed the strokes of ancient characters, spelling out the standard warning against intruders to the temple, and so on and so forth. The center wheel of the door and its circles within circles caught his eye. Excellent craftsmanship the whole way through.

Phoenix ran his fingers along the rings. "Hey, Luke, look. I'm 'Laytoning' it."

The little joke pulled quite the guffaw out of Luke and Maya both. Layton laughed as well, though it was more at Phoenix's outrageously proud grin at his clever insight. It got the desired result, it seemed, for when Layton checked on Espella out of the corner of his eye, she was giggling.

Maya was quick to put her hands on the door as well, leaning into it with all her weight. "Super smarting!" she cried, tricking another laugh out of Espella.

Luke threw his hands onto the door too. "Professor power!"

They all promptly fell down once the ring spun under their hands, landing in a heap with Phoenix at the bottom.

"Ah! A puzzle lock!" Layton congratulated. "Good job, everyone!"

Finally Barnham removed his gas mask, if only so everyone could see the near-offended look on his face. "All of you are _mad_."

"Perhaps," Layton acquiesed, "But helping a lady smile is what a gentleman does."

Maya chuckled from the floor. "Yeah, we're comedic geniuses."

Phoenix groaned. "Will all the children get off my spine, please?"

While the other three set to righting themselves, Layton took a closer look at the puzzle lock. Three circles set within each other, yes, decorated with inlaid crystals in crescents, semi-circles, and whole circles. Ah! There at the top and bottom of the door were a full crystal inlay and an empty round socket, respectively. "There we are. These represent the phases of the moon, I'm sure."

"Oo! Let me do it, professor!" Luke jumped up and threw his whole weight onto the wheel. It barely moved for him. "Cor! This is heavy!"

"The balance is probably off." Barnham set his feet and clawed his hand, turning the stone for Luke. The boy signaled when to stop by patting the ring, and he obligingly dropped his bending to the next wheel and turned it the same way. "Heavy stonework like this needs constant maintenance to work properly, or it sinks into its own weight."

"Thank you for helping us," said Espella. She gave him a little smile. "Even if we are mad."

Luke signaled him to turn the last wheel, and Barnham obliged. "If madness helps us find the truth, then I shall walk among mad people."

"Here's my answer!" Luke gave the door one big shove, and it swung right open. "I did it!"

Espella got the first look in, and bless her, she hid a giggle behind her fingers. "And behold, our reward is... more stairs!"

Layton held his hand out, lighting the passage. It was indeed a very small flight, about seven steps, but stairs nonetheless.

"I'm out." Maya threw up here hands in mock indignation and stormed away. "Enough stairs! I've had enough! I'm gonna go live in the flower patch!"

Phoenix made the point, "Once we're out of here, you could eat double the cheeseburgers and not gain weight from all the calories you've burned."

Maya went down the stairs first. "Lemme at them suckas! I will master the stairs!"

Layton cheered for on from the doorway while Espella and Luke shuffled in after. Phoenix stood next to him to clap. "Excellent positive thinking, Maya!"

Already out of sight, having gone further into the chamber, Maya called out. "I'm gonna have the best-looking legs out of all you guys! Except maybe Nick."

Phoenix blushed. "Maya!"

"Don't deny your gorgeous gams, Nick!"

Phoenix shyly smiled to the professor. "I ride my bike to work."

"I noticed your muscles in the spirit pool," Layton admitted. There came that blush again. "Maya's descriptions are... colorful, but accurate."

His friend rubbed at the back of his neck. "Shucks..."

Barnham strode between them wearing his cheekiest smirk. "Please stop flirting when we have a case to solve."

Amidst cries of "I missed it!" from Maya, Layton and Phoenix hurriedly entered that final chamber, and it truly did feel final. No branching halls, no wandering paths, no stairs other than the ones they came down, the round room held only a great sealed vault of a door that nearly took up the entire wall which held it. Two sources of light kept the empty room from feeling like a tomb: the glowing inlays in the high-reaching domed walls and the luminescent moss on the floor. The two together filled the space with a wonderfully calming blue light. The air here was damp, but free of the noxious fumes of the red flower ink. The smell was almost that of fresh rain on a clean street, and all present took long, deep breaths of the cool air.

"Nick, look!" Maya stomped down on a floor tile. It sunk minutely under her foot. "It's like Raiders!"

"Careful now," Layton warned. "It could be trapped."

"Nah, I've already jumped on all the loose tiles and nothing's killed me yet."

"Maya!" Phoenix groaned. "Stop making me yell your name like that! What if you'd triggered a poison dart trap or something?"

Maya held her arms out, as if showing off that her body was free of poison darts. "Well I didn't!"

"What if you need to step on-" Luke jumped onto another section of the floor. It didn't move for him, but that didn't stop him from whipping up an air funnel and sucking up patches of moss into a shorthand air cannon. "TWO floor tiles!"

He mimed the sound of darts whistling through the air and pelted Maya with moss bits. She squealed and dodged out of the way, hiding behind Barnham and then Espella when Barnham shoved her away. She retaliated by grabbing a big, oozy handful of the glowing moss right off the ground.

"C'mere, Luke..." Maya grinned. "I'm gonna make you bright like the professor!"

The chase was afoot instantly. Maya kept at Luke's heels and Espella brought up the rear, laughing and only playing at rebuking Maya for her immaturity. Barnham hung back, well out of the crossfire, while Phoenix and Layton kept watch.

"She seems like she's feeling better now," said Phoenix. "She deserves a little more fun in her life."

"Maya and Luke do an excellent job of cheering her up." He snuffed the fire in his hand, finding his eyes adjusting to the light just fine without it. "My mind keeps going back to that wall, though."

"I recognize none of those names." Barnham folded his arms. "But if Espella's mother's name hangs upon that wall, one would assume the other names belong to the dead as well."

Phoenix nodded. "Morbid thought, but probably right."

Layton had to rule out the possibility. "Perhaps they are the names of those who died of natural causes."

"No one has." Barnham flinched at the sudden incredulous stares. "I speak the truth! I can recall no deaths of natural causes in my lifetime!"

"So what happens to all your old folks?" asked Phoenix.

"They... it..." Barnham winced and averted his eyes. "It... it feels foolish to say in front of Sir Layton."

Oh dear. It had to do with firebender indoctrination, then. Phoenix laid a hand on his shoulder protectively. "I understand if you are uncomfortable."

"Suffice it to say.." Barnham finally managed. "Before, I saw it as the Storyteller granting us power to punish those who preyed on the weak. I've... begun to rethink it as sending the feeble to their deaths. And yet, their names are not upon that wall."

Layon asked, "Then whose would they be?"

"Those who died in the Great Fire."

" _The_ Great Fire?" Phoenix clarified. "The one over a hundred years ago? And Espella's mother is on that wall?"

"The Storyteller is as old as Labyrinthia itself," Barnham noted. "And here he lives still." He shook his head and massaged his temple. "My head..."

"Logical fallacies seem to have that effect on people here," Layton grumbled. Phoenix's hand still rested on his shoulder, and he calmly removed it with a thankful pat. "I'm fine, Phoenix."

"I worry." Phoenix put on his best aggravated salesman voice. " _Labyrinthia: We make so little sense, it hurts._ "

Maya and Luke ehad jumped to opposite sides of the room to throw moss at each other, and Espella was making a show of switching sides from Maya to Luke. As soon as Espella's feet joined Luke's on the tile, it shifted the whole way down, and the room lit up.

"Don't move!" Layton shouted, suddenly running out to the children. "Everyone stay where you are until I can take a look at it!"

"Oh no!" Espella whimpered. "Are we in danger?"

Luke's finger shot up. "I think I know what this is! IT's a puzzle where you have to mirror each other's footsteps and turn on all the lights!" Layton rushed past him to read the bright glyphs that had appeared in the far door. "Isn't it, professor?"

"The gates of destruction will open once the Seal of Sages is broken..." Layton nodded. "I believe so, which means one wrong move-"

Maya stomped on the floor behind her, and the glyphs went dark.

"-resets the puzzle."

"Maya!" Luke shouted.

"See?!" said Phoenix. "Now you have Luke doing it!"

Maya got back in place, lighting up the room again. All that light couldn't be coming from just the door, Layton guessed. Where was- the light cut off again. "Maya!"

"Now all I need is for Espella and Barnham to say it, and I'll have the whole set!"

"Right." Barnham strode out onto the floor, lifted Maya onto his shoulder, and carried her back to Phoenix to set her down on the steps. "Your clowning has gone far enough. Espella is happy and you are interfering with the lock. Wright, take her place."

Espella let the floor to sit by Maya, and while Phoenix did take Maya's spot, Luke's weight wasn't enough to trigger the lights. Layton traded out for Luke, leaving the other four out on the steps and the two men facing each other in the middle of the room, in front of everyone, and lit from all sides.

Layton could see the performance anxiety quivering in Phoenix's shoulders. "I have faith in you, Phoenix. We can do this together. Of this, I am utterly convinced."

"Right! Puzzles! We can do it!" He didn't sound entirely convinced, but he rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. "Just... _how_ do we do it?"

Layton took a moment to survey the walls. Crystal inlays were set in the walls above their heads. While he could see the slots for many many thousands of settings, only two were currently lit. There was one above either of them of a man in a kata stance. Layton moved to match the image he could see clearly, the one over Phoenix's head. When Phoenix did the same with his, the blue light of the crystal shifted to white, and a new image of the next step of the kata appeared in blue on top of it.

"And we keep going until we light them all?" Phoenix asked.

"It seems so."

They shifted into the next pose, and the next. Sometimes the pictures had them turning, but wherever their eyesight fell, their next image was directly in front of them to point them in the right direction. As Layton worked through the unfamiliar form, his energy began to flow. Fire reflexively shot from his hands as he thrust his fists forward. From the ripples in his flames and the ruffle of his coat, he could tell that Phoenix was experiencing the same. The forms took them back into each other's sights, and to Layton's surprise, Phoenix was grinning. "Hey! I know what this reminds me of!"

They moved into the next steps, which had them slowly circling each other. Phoenix worked offensive, trading "blows" which Layton blocked and deflected step by step. Through it all, Phoenix talked. "I don't know if they teach this in Earth States schools, but it was always my favorite story in history class. This is like how Fire Lord Zuko rediscovered firebending from the dragons!"

Layton let his flames fall naturally from his hands, enchanted as they were swept up in air currents winding their way around Phoenix's body. "Is that so?"

"Yeah!" Phoenix rolled his shoulders around a ribbon of fire, making way for Layton to take a swing at him and dodge behind. "Fire Lord Zko and Avatar Aang- the airbender one-"

Layton chuckled at Phoenix's eager retelling. "Of course." Their paths intersected. A quick check of their guides had them switching places on a sharp turn, leaving their legs dangerously crossed for a moment before they untangled themselves smoothly.

Phoenix was beaming. His blue eyes were bright in the fire-lit room. "Dancing the Dragon Dance in the Sun Temple."

Layton bent a whip of flames to Phoenix just to watch him gather it in an air ball and disperse it into a shower of sparks. "It almost sounds like a euphemism."

"Or the name of a really pretentious cocktail."

They both laughed, caught up in the ever-brighter room and the heat of the dance, and the steady circling of their own bodies closer and closer to each other. Step by steady step, the gap between them grew smaller. Fire and air met and melded until it surrounded them in a ball of golden bars. A long moment hung there, where the whole world was them. Nothing existed outside their shared energy. He and Phoenix were at the center of their personal universe, and where they met in the middle, everything was Wright.

A cool wind ruffled their clothes, and the room echoed with the sound of sliding stone. That was the door opening, he guessed. They had each frozen at the last step of the kata, frozen in a block that locked their arms and forced each other close. Neither dropped their stance. He expected a shy smile or a blush or a laugh and then for one of them to pull away, but Phoenix held their gaze and kept his breathing deep and steady. Layton's hairs stood on end. The spirit water hadn't electrified him as much as this very moment.

He wet his throat and joked, "I was expecting Maya to break the tension by now."

"There was no way I was breaking that up," Maya argued.

They had to pull away from each other, and it was the oddest sensation to come back into the real world after what they shared. It was as if reality had to fall back into place like a grain of sand coming to rest in a jar, each individual grain building the world up around them. That world was bright, as bright as modern lights now that every crystal was glowing white instead of blue. The world also included Espella, of course, who practically had stars in her eyes; and Barnham, who had politely (of self-consciously, he wasn't sure) hidden his mouth behind his hand. Maya fanned out her robes.

"Look, I'd make a joke, the 'that's hot' lines are right there and it'd be really easy," she drolly explained. "But you two actually literally made me break out into a sweat right after a bath and I'm mad at you, so I'll collect all my jokes in a list later and give it to you then."

Phoenix whispered quietly to Layton. "I think she might be proud of us."

Only Luke could bear to crack the moment in half. "There's nothing in there."

They had been so swept up in their dance they hadn't checked yet! Layton turned on his heel to the door, but it wasn't a door to another room so much as it was just another section of the chamber, and it was empty! They all rushed into it at once. All that the new area held was a great plinth where an object might have been in the past. That was it. That was _it._

Maya hopped up onto the platform. "If we came all this way for an ancient kareoke booth, I'm leaving. For real this time."

"Nonono, there has to be something here," Phoenix argued. "They wouldn't have built all this stuff around it for nothing!"

Barnham sighed. "I don't suppose anyone's noticed the plaque."

"I-" Layton followed Barnham's finger. There was the plaque, placed on ground level and barely sticking up out of the stone. Maya was standing on the top corner. "Oh. Thank you, Barnham, I actually hadn't."

The inquisitor humphed. "I suppose that spectacle of a dance cooked your brain?"

Layton read while Maya threatened Barnham with a thumping. "'Woe betide those who tread here, for death comes to those who ring the Bell of Ruin'. It doesn't seem as if the bell is here any longer."

Luke piped up. "Is... that why Labyrinthia is the way it is? Because this place was tomb-robbed?"

"I hesitate to believe in curses, Luke."

"I don't!" joked Maya. "I'm gonna say a whole bunch right now-"

"Guys!" Phoenix shouted. "Espella's bluescreening!"

The third time! Layton mentally kicked himself. Espella was falling to her knees even as Barnham dove to catch her. "The bell! Ring the bell and summon the dragon! I didn't want to do it! It made me!"

"Ah crap, where's the bowl?!" Maya remembered. "Did we leave it upstairs?"

"Fire everywhere! My mother's in there! Help me!" Espella struggled in Barnham's grip. "Everyone's dead and I killed them all!"

Barnham recoiled from Espella and suddenly slammed up a wall of Earth between them and the door. It crumbled into rubble in seconds, broken by the hooded figures swarming the other side. They surrounded them in seconds, before anyone could so much as put their guard up, grabbed hold of each of them with unrelenting hands. They were pulled away from Espella and could only watch as she writhed on the floor in agony.

"I did it! I remember it all! I rang the bell! I killed all of Labyrinthia when I summoned the dragon!"

Her voice cracked, and Espella stood upright with calm, dead eyes.

"I am the Fire Lord, and I killed my mother."

The Fire Lord and the Storyteller parted the crowd of hooded ones.

Maya spoke for all of them. _"Shit."_

"What have you done to her?" The Storyteller stumbled into Espella and caught her up in his arms. "My dear sweet Espella... why is she here?" He turned to the Fire Lord, still crushing Espella in his grip. "Why did you let her find this place?"

"You're the one with questions to answer, you- you terrible father!" Luke struggled in the hooded folk's grips. "Why kind of a father-"

"Silence him!"

One of the benders threw a strip of metal over Luke's mouth and crimped it shut around the back of his head. He screamed in terror behind his gag, and Layton dove for him before he, Phoenix, and the others were all gagged the same way. It was a horrible sensation of metal slamming into his jaw and the painful pressure he couldn't shake away from. He struggled to keep from panicking as the Storyteller whipped back over to them.

"Is this what you wanted?" The Storyteller railed against them. "Was this what you were searching for? My daughter's pain and misery? You couldn't just let us have this peaceful life, you interlopers had to interfere because your 'truth' was so much more important than Espella's health and well-being! Haven't you seen how miserable you've made everyone around you? You horrible, selfish, thoughtless monsters!"

Luke was still fighting, but to his dread, Layton caught Maya collapsing in a dead faint out of the corner of his eye. Phoenix wailed behind his gag, and the sound wrung at Layton's very core.

He turned his back on them, issuing his orders directly to the Fire Lord. "We should proceed as we have planned. Make sure Espella has the optimal seating for the parade and the trial. For these horrible people, have the Shades re-educate them all. Set the black-haired ones up as firebenders, and have them kill Professor Layton. Keep the boy. We'll have him trained for the Inquisition."

The strength of what he felt, the revulsion and the horror and the sheer adrenaline rush, had him digging his feet in and forcing his way out of the Shade's hands- only to have his feet sink into the floor, and his hands forced into the granite by earthbending the instant they made contact with the ground. Luke cried and writhed in the Shades' grip as they carried him away, tears pouring down his cheek at he tried to reach out to Layton, and no matter how hard he pulled- and he was pulling hard enough to wrench his shoulder- he couldn't break free. Layton felt tears going down his own cheeks as Luke was taken away. He could only scream behind his gag, throwing pleas and insults at the Storyteller in equal measure, but the sound never made it past his mouth.

"And what of the inquisitor?" spoke the Fire Lord.

"Shade him until I return," the Storyteller answered plainly. "We could use his muscle. Until then, I must bring Espella home... come dear."

The Storyteller lead Espella away by the hand, his steps heavy and mournful. The Fire Lord stood quiet, watching them, until he was long gone.

"Now you see how deeply this runs. I owe you much, Hershel Layton." The Fire Lord smiled. "I have all I need to break this entire city over my knee."

He had been used. He made one more attempt to pull his arm loose before the wracking pain in his shoulder sent him to the ground in agony. She lifted him by the collar of his shirt, surveying his face. "Have him healed before re-educating him. I don't want the pain as a distraction. And for the airbender, bring me my notes. I need to make amendments to the story to call off this ridiculous avatar search." She dropped Layton and made her way over to Phoenix. "Start building him a backstory, say he married the girl as a child bride or something else disgusting-"

Phoenix wrenched a leg free and kicked straight up, airbending her in the face and flipping her dragon mask right off. It fell to the other side of the room with a hollow clatter.

She was so young. She might have been Espella's age, maybe a year older. Layton knew that face; it was the woman who'd "greeted" Luke and him on the wagon when they first arrived!

Barnham's muffled scream, and the way her eyebrows shot up her forehead, told him that the two knew each other much better.

"Shades! To the private rooms, imme-"

Barnham broke out, and within seconds he had earthbended a swatch of destruction through the room. Shades flew from their spots and into the ceiling, while the other earthbenders countered every one of his blows with three from any direction. Layton felt his hands and feet come loose only to have a pack of five Shades bodily lift him and carry him out of the room. The last he saw of Barnham was the boy bending himself backward into the wall, and the Fire Lord's frenzied calls to find him were swiftly cut off by a resounding ringing in his ears.

Barnham had bent himself into the wall with all his strength, knowing that the granite would at least keep the other benders at bay while he bent his way up and back into Labyrinthia.

He had never felt such powerful terror in his life when he was suddenly flooded with water. It crushed his ears and nose, and only the metal gag kept him from taking a powerful gasp of water in through his mouth. Everything hurt, the salt in his eyes and the water in his ears and nose and the stone gauntlet pulling his arm down. He only just managed to bend it off of him and swim towards the impossibly bright surface, an agonizing minute of frantic paddling and his lungs screaming at him for air. He broke the surface to a raging storm, gulping down a mouthful of water before he ducked under and resurfaced for air. Something was screaming in the distance, moving towards him, and when he reached out again, he hit an arm.

"Mr. Edgeworth, help me out here! Hang on tight, pal!"

Another set of hands against his other arm, and a third set across his shoulders, grappled him and hauled him over the side of their vessel- a boat, a boat made of some strange material that was smooth under his hands. He wailed behind the gag, feeling sick and dizzy.

"Get that off of him, Gumshoe!"

"What's over your mouth?! My god, someone was trying to kill you!"

The largest of the men, an enormous man with strong hands and a grip of iron, grabbed either side of his metal gag and pried it from his face. He was ready to speak until something stirred in his chest, and he felt the unique and horrible sensation of water behind bent out of his lungs through his nose. He coughed, the noise drowned out by the thunder, until he could speak again. "Where am I?!"

"Well, you're on a police boat," said a dark-skinned red-haired man in white. "And we're on the run from the police we stole the boat from!"

"We have COMMANDEERED this VESSEL!" wailed the waterbender in maroon. "We are RETURNING IT to the proper authorities once we are back to shore! We did not STEAL anything!"

"That ain't important, though. You okay, pal?" asked the enormous man. "What were you doing with that metal over your face?"

The red-haired man gasped, "Give the man time to breath, Gumshoe, he was obviously an attempted murder!"

"Where in _Labyrinthia_?!" Barnham demanded.

"Where the hell is Labyrinthia?" the waterbender snapped back.

"We need to go back! And quickly!" He tried to stand to his feet. "Sir Wright, Sir Layton, they're in danger-"

"What?!" The waterbender screamed. "What do you mean? Where are they now?!"

Barnham looked up and out at the horizon, where the line of the sky was chopped into impossibly tall and jagged figures, and hazy creatures bled into the storming sky in an otherworldly dance with the lighting and rain.

He _remembered_.

He sat heavily down. "Bring me to the police."

"Good!" said the red-haired man. "We're going there anyway. In the meantime, tell us everything."

"Everything..." He nodded. "Everything I can..."


	16. The Underground: The Fourth Day 3

The Earth King Has Invited You To Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

He came to awareness from a bright light somewhere on the other side of his eyelids, and the first thing he noticed was that his wrenched shoulder was warm and wet and free of pain. It didn't fit his memories. The last thing he remembered was Barnham disappearing and Luke being taken. He had to wake up, but his eyelids were like stone. His name was Hershel Layton, his parents were Roland and Lucille-

He forced his eyes open to a light so bright it blinded him. When he flinched, his cheek ran into a solid stone mass. Testing his arms and legs, he found them bound tight to a chair by rough hemp rope. His coat and shirt had been removed, and while the fact humiliated him, it didn't terrify him as much as the chill around his hairline. They'd taken his hat. Cold air bit at his bare skin, as did the healing water bent against his shoulder by the Shade on the edge of his vision. If he had to venture a guess, they had chilled the room to keep him from firebending, and it was working quite effectively. He could barely summon the energy to keep himself warm, much less dredge up enough heat to make a flame.

His focus expanded as the light was moved away from his face. He could open his eyes to see a tiny room, no doors or windows, and the two Shades on either side of him. The tallest one, the one who stood the straightest, the one with the broadest shoulders, the one in charge stood between him and the only source of light. It made the violet edge of their robes glow in the oppressive darkness, and the plume of hot breath that escaped from their gas mask's vents made Layton shudder.

"Do not be frightened," said the Head Shade.

"Where is Luke?" Layton asked with a frighteningly weak voice. He attempted to sit himself up straighter; the cold that ran down his bare back caused him to quake all over again. "What have you done with him?"

"They are safe with us," the Shade spoke calmingly. Her voice was a quiet, smooth balm against his chilled nerves. Layton couldn't even move his head enough to shake the thought away. It was wrong. She wasn't here to help him. She kept speaking. " _You_ are safe with us. We will make all of your worries disappear."

He knew these techniques. This was the Dai Li's method of breaking minds. He'd read about them in school, morbidly remarking that they sounded horrible at the time but not imagining how terrifying they would be in person. His heart hammered in his chest. His words failed him; what could he say to them that would make them let him go? He could think of nothing.

The light shifted, rolling around from the back of the Shade to the front, and then back again in a slow, steady orbit along a metal track. Every pass in front of his bare face brought the heat of the gas lamp, the blinding light, and the sickening smell of burning kerosene inches from his face for a split second. He flinched from it with no way to move away. Even if he screwed his eyes shut, the light still shined through his eyelids. Just as his pupils adjusted to the darkness of the room, it came back like a hammer to the head and shocked him all over.

"Your name is Copper," the Head Shade spoke. "Your parents are Lee and Zou, of the Earth Kingdom."

Layton growled, trying to bring the energy to his hands and finding his fingers numbed and aching. "No..."

"You do not bend, but you work with the Inquisition to keep Labyrinthia safe. You have a happy life. You are a normal man, Copper. Everything is taken care of for you." The Head Shade held out her hands in invitation. "We will keep you safe from the firebenders."

"My name is Hershel Layton," he ground out. "And I _am_ a firebender!"

Something behind him crashed, or exploded, and sent the Head Shade slamming backwards and into the lamp's rig. It crashed and guttered the flame of the lamp, and Layton spent a terrified half-second in silence before the lights kicked on overhead. A whirl of skin and the bright glare of a sword cut through the Shades one by one, downing them with heavy blows of the blade's flat against the sides of their heads and the pommel on their elbows and shoulders. His dazed eyes could barely follow it. It was only when the attacker stopped and the Shades were all unconscious that he could focus.

The woman had Maya's hair, and her clothes, and the face was similar, but it wasn't Maya. This woman was tall and sharp-eyed, her figure spilling out of Maya's too-small garments. Her bare feet splayed wide against the stone flow, she held the metal broadsword light and firm as if it were a toy. Hanging from her belt were Maya's little wooden sandals.

He choked out, "Maya?" and got the sword edged closer to his nose in response.

"How do you know Maya?" the woman asked, her voice commanding and fierce, yet high and feminine.

"There's too much to explain!" Layton explained, his hands rising up in surrender as best they could. There was so much to tell, and he'd no idea how long he'd been unconscious! "Maya and Phoenix are both in danger, I have no idea where they are!"

She reared back with the sword and plunged the tip down on the ropes of his right wrist. The blade stabbed solidly onto the wood of the chair, missing his skin by the slightest brush, and sliced the ropes off of him. He set to untying his other arm while the woman cut his ankles free with the same show of precision strength.

"It's a long explanation for me too," she said. "My name's Mia, if you know Phoenix, then you're with me until we find him."

Free from the ropes, Layton sprang from the chair. A warm draft came in from behind him, smelling of ink. "They didn't take me far. They must be in one of the other rooms." He ran his hand over his shoulder, and his chest, checking for injuries. When his search turned up nothing, he scanned the rest of the room and found his clothes and belongings in a box by the door behind him. "Ah-ha!"

"Far from where?" asked Mia. She readied her sword and held its massive weight in one hand. "I don't recognize this place at all."

"Dai Li compound. Not sure how or why." Layton threw on his shirt and hat, followed quickly by his coat. "Most of the rooms here are accessible only by earthbending."

Mia made a little proud noise at the back of her throat. "And there might be more of the purple guys. Stay close, Mr. Universe."

He pulled his coat on and straightened his hat just as more Shades filled in the doorway. "With pleasure!"

He pulled forth his inner fire and attacked, blasting the Shades out of the doorway with a two-handed blow. Warmed by his clothing and his freedom, Layton's flame was fueled by his brimming anger. How dare they do that to him! What were they doing to Luke and the others?! Shade after faceless Shade, six of them total, surged forward only to meet a roaring fist of fire, and those who dared attack from behind were swiftly floored by Mia's heavy blows. Mia never aimed to cut, and Layton never let the flames touch his opponents; they only hit hard enough to put their attackers down. Those who didn't stay down were smart enough to run.

Layton only stopped to look around once the Shades pulled away; he was high on a catwalk and faced with the sheer wall of identical doors in the flower patch room. He and Mia were in the middle of the wall, and he couldn't think of a way to climb up quickly, or down without a way back up.

"Thanks for leaving us a trail, Nick," Mia groused.

Layton cupped his hands and shouted. "LUKE!"

A tiny voice from above answered, muffled but terrified. "Professor!"

Shades flooded out of every door on their level.

Mia and Layton stood back to back- she was so much taller than him- and worked their way through the Shades that came at them. Mia pulled a little too hard on the backswing and nailed Layton in the ribs with her elbow. "Well _thanks_ , now we have an army of Scooby Doo ghosts to deal with."

"I apologize," the professor relented, throwing one of his stronger opponents over the railing. The Shade earthbent a platform from the wall and started to ride back into position; Layton simply threw another Shade into his path and knocked them down the rest of the way. "Luke is only a child; his safety takes priority."

"Really?" Mia asked casually, rolling an attacking firebender over her shoulder and onto the pair of Shades coming up the wall. They tumbled back down again. "Yours? How old?"

"About eleven-"

"Eleven?!" Mia sword swiped over his head, smacking a Shade into the wall beside them. "Whenever we get out of here you have to tell me everything, because you're not appealing yourself to me much. I find you naked-"

He took offense to that! "I was not!"

"- and tied up with no idea where Nick and Maya are-"

Layton whirled around Mia and threw the waterbending Shade at her arm over the railing and onto the pile of Shades below. "Need I remind you, miss, that you have not elaborated on _your_ connection to Phoenix and Maya either!"

With their positions reversed, Mia worked her way through the increasingly short line of Shades. Those in the back were starting to run, either chancing going down the wall on foot or earthbending ramps out to the flower patch. "And you brought a little boy into this situation!"

"I have a very personal investment in their safety, thank you!"

"Professor?!" Luke called out again.

"Luke?" another voice- Phoenix's!- answered. "I can hear you Luke, keep-"

Phoenix's voice was suddenly silenced with a muffled cry, and Layton's heart leaped into his throat. Mia must have felt the same way, finishing off the last three Shades with one swipe and a long throw down into the flower patch, then turning to Layton.

"Bygones?" she asked.

Layton nodded. "Bygones. It sounded like Phoenix was coming from above."

"Give you a lift?"

"Right."

She could practically lift him up to the next level one-handed. He pulled himself up to the platform and opened three doors easily to empty rooms. The fourth one was locked, but Phoenix grunted from the other side, and he threw himself into puzzling open the lock. By the time he had it open, Mia had scaled up to the level herself and rushed in the door, taking down the three guards and throwing the lightswitch on.

Phoenix was bound to the chair the same way he had been, his mouth tied with a purple strip of cloth. He untied Phoenix's gag while Mia cut the ropes.

"What- Mia?!"

"Hi, Nick," Mia conversationally greeted.

"Are you all right, Phoenix?" Layton asked. Phoenix hadn't been stripped like he had, but Layton still patted his shoulders and collarbone to be sure. "They haven't hurt you?"

Phoenix looked over him much the same way, hands coming up to grab his shoulders once Mia had them free. "Don't think so. Did you find Luke?"

"He's far above us, we haven't-"

Phoenix jumped to his feet. Layton and Mia staggered back a few steps to make room for him. "We'll go get him, then!"

Layton pulled his brim. "We'll have to climb."

"Oh jeez, he's up at the top of the wall, isn't he?" Phoenix nearly choked. "WAIT! I can still go get him! I-I've got this one!"

Phoenix hurried out the door, Layton and Mia trailing behind. He was working his hands in a circle, gathering up the momentum for an air scooter. "Okay this might work, this might not, but IF it works, you tell Maya I did something cool, got it?"

Mia's eyes went wide. "Wait, since when were you an-"

Phoenix flew over the railing. "I'm comin', Luke!"

Layton felt his heart plummet when Phoenix jumped over the side, but not a second later, the lawyer was rushing up the wall on top of a ball of air, screaming his lungs out in panic. Mia was speechless, and Layton took a moment to bring his heart rate down a bit. It took a strong grip on the rail with both hands to manage it.

"Yes, the airbending is a particularly new development."

Mia took a moment to breathe herself. "I noticed."

"It's this one!" Phoenix hollered, throwing his upper body over one of the rails. "I have the door but I can't get it open!"

"It's a puzzle lock!" Layton called up to him. Phoenix needed his help! He was already bracing himself to make the climb up, as was Mia. "Put in all prime numbers!"

"Um-"

Mia shouted. "Two, three, five, and seven!"

"Okay!" Phoenix pulled back again, taking to the lock a second time no doubt. "Meet me on the floor!"

Layton nodded and threw his leg over, ready to slide down to the bottom as best he could. The earthbender Shades had left enough footholds and jutting steps to make for a safe trip down, as long as he was acrobatic. Mia clung to his sleeve in protest. "Wait, you can't just leave Nick to do it himself! He's not a fighter!"

"Neither am I," Layton put plainly. "But I do trust in the abilities he has-"

It was at that moment that Nick jumped from the highest catwalk on the wall, holding Luke in a chair above his head, and plummeted straight down screaming. Layton nearly did the same, his body working faster than his mind as he jumped and skidded down the treacherous slope. The corner of his vision saw Phoenix twisting himself into a spin. The air around him kicked up every loose flower petal and highlighted the solid column of air he'd bent under himself, cushioning his drop into a steadier touchdown with Luke dizzy but safe in his arms.

"You could've taken them..." Luke murmured.

"You crazy?" Phoenix gasped. He put Luke gently down. "The big one had a sword!"

Layton worked at the ropes tying Luke until he was freed. He nearly crushed the boy to his chest, but good heavens, had he been scared. Luke returned the hug with such a fervor that it made tears well up in his eyes again, but he pushed them back with his thumb. "We still need to find Maya-"

"No, actually, you don't." Mia checked over her shoulders. "Any more of the purples?"

Phoenix watched over Layton's head, and he and Luke both turned to look. The Shades from Luke's room gave them one hard look and ran for the exits at the end of the catwalks, unseen by any of them before this point. Layton felt the fool for assuming they weren't there, but at the very least, none of those Shades were interested in a fight.

"You'd better run!" Luke shouted after them. "Or the professor will pound you!"

Layton blushed. "Luke Triton!"

"I was worried when I saw Maya pass out, but..." Phoenix put a hand on their shoulders and turned them both towards Mia. "Mia, this is Professor Hershel Layton and Luke Triton. Guys, this is Mia Fey, my mentor."

"Like Maya?" Luke responded with all the cheer he could muster. "I bet you two are sisters! You look so much alike!"

"He's so smart!" Mia chuckled. She stabbed her sword into the ground, and Layton finally noticed that she'd simply stolen one from one of the guards. It had the Labyrinthia symbol in the hilt. "And I guess he's not your son after all."

"Your so- yeah, I made that mistake too," Phoenix guessed. "Mia, this is gonna sound crazy, but me, Maya, Hershel, and Luke were all kidnapped and brought to this underground village where they think it's the 100 Year War."

Mia cradled her chin in thought, and Layton distantly wondered why they weren't searching for Maya. "Sounds crazy."

"There's a woman Fire Lord who wants us dead and the Storyteller who makes everything happen in this place by writing it down in a magic book."

"Still crazy."

"And for some reason, it involves the Dai Li."

Mia threw up her hands. "Fully crazy."

Luke added, "And you don't even know the half of it."

Mia nodded. "No, but I feel like I helped get you out of it."

"Only part of it." Phoenix explained fast with a skill for summarization that Layton envied. "We're being held hostage, people's memories are being changed and erased, and unless we can find a way to keep it from happening anymore, there's a chance that it could happen to us again, and that's what you just rescued us from. Can you stay?"

"I probably shouldn't," said Mia. The professor was baffled. Where would she go? "With all the time you'd need to get me up to speed, I wouldn't be much help unless you needed extra muscle or legal advice, and it seems like you have those bases covered."

"But-"

"Now, Maya," she smiled, "It sounds like she's been in on this whole plot from the beginning. Now that I've gotten you boys out of trouble, can I trust you to keep her safe from here on out?"

Luke promised with a hearty "Yes!" while Phoenix nodded and Layton still found himself very flummoxed indeed.

"Now..." Luke asked. "Where is Maya?"

"All right, Nick." Mia closed her eyes. "You better tell me the whole story when you're done."

Mia dropped into a dead faint, but by the time she fell into Phoenix's arms, she was Maya.

Luke stuttered. Layton would not let go of his hat.

Maya came to wakefulness after Nick patted her cheek, and she reflexively tightened her robes where they'd fallen loose. "Woah... how did I get here?"

"Next time you plan on channeling your sister," Phoenix scolded. "You might want to warn the people who've never seen it before."

"So Mia was here? And she saved us?!" Maya threw her hands into the air. "WOOHOOO! Mia saves the day again! Magic Mia powers not just for trials anymore!"

The lawyer rubbed at his neck. "It's too much to explain right now-" Phoenix began.

Layton cut in, "I agree."

"-but I guess now we have to find Espella and get out of here."

"Oh jeez right, Espella!" Maya gasped. "We have no idea where her dad took her!"

Now that, he could solidly wrap his head around. Layton pulled his hat snug against his head. "On the contrary! He said himself Espella needed a seat for the parade. They must be going to the town square."

"But how do we get back to town from here?" Luke asked. "We can't go all the way up through the courthouse again, can we?"

"The Shades have to have a way in and out of here faster than that!" Phoenix pointed out the side doors the Shades opened up in their panic. "Look, like those! They had to run someplace, maybe they ran back to town!"

"Everyone, it is a long shot," Layton took the lead and ran for the nearest floor-level secret door. "But here goes nothing!"

"Oh great-" Maya got in one last grump. "Now we get to run _up_ the stairs!"

It was alarming, how short a path became once the quickest route was found. They shot up a flight of stairs long enough to make their calves collectively ache, but once they threw open the door at the top, they were in the waiting area of the Labyrinthia courthouse. The four moved as one, covering each others blind spots as they moved out into the street. The longer they walked, though, the less they saw. They encountered no one in their rush to the town square, either in purple or normal clothing. They'd gotten about to Patty's bakery before the strangeness of the situation made it too scary to keep going. They all stopped for a breath.

"Why... is the town deserted?" Phoenix panted.

"This is very strange." Layton kept his eyes up, scanning the horizon. The town was nearly dead. "Eerie, almost."

"Is this what the parades look like when you're not hypnotized?" wondered Maya.

It took Luke's young eyes to catch it. Layton caught the flail of movement from the boy's arms as he scrambled to pick up a piece of the Story from the dirt. "They must have had the parade already! Listen- 'Tonight, on nightfall, the Story will come to an end-' 'The Fire Lord will light upon the Bell Tower-" Luke must have been skipping profusely, and he read the last words with a panicked squeal. "'The Fire Lord will take the Storyteller's life, and usher in a new age as the town tries and executes her'!"

The Storyteller wrote of Espella murdering him? And being executed? Layton felt his blood boil. "We have to stop them!"

Phoenix rushed over to read the paper himself. "Does it say how?"

Luke's eyes flew over the words. "Something something something 'and the Fire Lord will summon the great-'"

Maya screamed. "DRAGON!"

Layton felt the fire on his back, through his coat, before he even lifted his eyes. Over their heads curled a great pillar of fire with a fanged maw and black, soulless eyes. It soared over the buildings and scorched Labyrinthia's ceiling, making the crystals above glow red from the heat. They followed its head from the streets, finally running into townspeople who were running screaming from the monster. It whirled in place above the Bell Tower.

Up in the highest point of the tower, standing behind a low railing, stood a cloaked figure in dark reds with long, flowing blond hair. The figure waved her hands, and the dragon responded, coiling back and finally striking down upon the Storyteller's great parade float. The citizens roared in terror. Layton ran towards the fire.

"Espella's in the Bell Tower!" he shouted. "Hurry!"

There was no impediment to their scaling the tower. The gate had been thrown open by the guards who ran in before them, their broad bodies nearly blocking the stairwell. Layton was the first to burst through the final doorway, with Phoenix close behind.

The guards lifted an unconscious Espella off the floor.


	17. The Final Trial: The Fifth Day 1

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

 _This doesn't look good! This doesn't look good at all!_

"Hey- hands off her!" Phoenix hurried out of the stairwell first to pry the Inquisitor's hands off Espella's limp shoulders. "She needs help-!"

He didn't get far. In fact, he stopped pretty instantly at the sword in his face. He'd been so tunnel-vision intent on getting to Espella that he hadn't even noticed the massive and heavily armored- not to mention armed- guard. He was certainly a lot bigger than Barnham, but even with the size difference, he didn't seem to carry Barnham's presence. It was natural that he looked right over him, he supposed. Still, he was waving around a sword, and Phoenix was learning that swords were a great shorthand way to get his attention.

Big and burly and loud, as well as sumptuously armored, this one particular guard must have been the man in charge. He bellowed in Phoenix's face, "Out of the crime scene, Defender! Avatar or not, we won't have you interfering with the capture of the Fire Lord!"

"I'm not the Avatar!" Phoenix shouted right back with a full-bodied airbending holler that knocked the guard back a few feet. "And she isn't the Fire Lord! We've _seen_ the Fire Lord!"

Maya peeked out from the stairwell behind him. "Yeah, and she's a hot chick!"

He felt the embarrassment hit him right in the gut. For the love of Pete, even Layton was turning to look at her funny, not to mention all of the guards on the floor. One of them was even laughing. In fact, he was pretty sure that one laughing was the Wordsmith from their first trial, just in armor. The shame hit him double. _Tactful. Thanks, Maya. Always helping our case._

Layton came forward, standing at his right-hand side. Thank goodness, his argument was a little better worded. "Please, I understand this must look incriminating, but Espella is truly not the person you seek. Remember the first trial! She is being framed!"

"Impossible!" The head guard sheathed his sword, at least, but his boistrous air did not drop for an instant. "We Vigilantes were first on the scene, and we found the Fire Lord here alone, collapsed on the floor! There was no one here _to_ frame the scoundrel!"

"What he said! What he said! What Captain Boistrum said!" chanted the guards holding up Espella. "No one escapes Vigilante justice!"

Luke finally came out of the stairwell and sneaked a look at the guards- the Vigilantes?- through the space between Phoenix and Layton. "Do... they know what 'vigilante' even means?"

Layton covered his mouth in thought. "I'm not entirely certain they do, Luke."

"Oi!" the captain blustered, "I object to those implications of our incompetence!"

 _We didn't say anything about your competence,_ Phoenix thought to himself. _Methinks the captain doth protest too much._

"We're Labyrinthia's elite law-enforcement force, I'll have you know!"

A tiny, _tiny_ man speaking in the thickest Foggy Swamp accent he'd ever heard said... something to Phoenix. He couldn't make heads or tails of the angry little man's jabbering. He was carrying on for quiet a while there, too, which his fellow Vigilantes listened and nodded appreciatively. Did they understand him? Or were they humoring their comrade to make Phoenix look bad? Or maybe Phoenix looked bad without needing to be humored. When he checked Hershel's face for support, the professor seemed just as flabberghasted as him. Left with no options, he turned to his expert on things he had trouble understanding. "Maya!"

Maya translated. "He says that while we've all been galavanting around Labyrinthia hiding from the law, he and his friend Shakey have been here guarding the Bell Tower, and they've gathered up decisive evidence that proves Espella is the Fire Lord! But I might be paraphrasing."

"Decisive evidence? Where?"

The tiny man's accent was so thick and so huge, it was almost like the taller Vigilante had been hiding behind it. Phoenix hadn't even noticed the frail-looking man, leaning on a crutch and bandaged over his ratty armor. Phoenix would've felt immeasurable pity for the guy if he didn't look like a caricature. The frail one gave a meager salute even as he struggled to stay standing.

"I-I was the first-" he croaked, "-on th-the scene." He then promptly dropped into a heap at his own feet.

 _They're not exactly making a great argument for their own competence..._ thought Phoenix.

"We mustn't rush to make judgements, Phoenix," said Hershel. "It is ungentlemanly."

 _How does he do that?_ Phoenix let a little chill go up his back. As much as he wanted to, now was really not the time to dwell on that moment they shared in the cavern. He held out his hand, signaling Shakey to "gimme" with his fingertips. "All right. Hand it over."

They all stared at him, each and every Vigilante including the oddly tall and pretty one with the long hair in the back. Shakey clambered back up to his feet. "H-hand what over?"

"The evidence!" Phoenix straightened up his shoulders. "As Espella's defense, I have a right to examine it!"

That sent a little murmur of iscontent through the Vigilantes, minus the little angry one who let out a much bigger murmur of discontent. It was more of a howl, really. Phoenix couldn't understand a thing. "Maya!"

"Let me handle this, gentlemen."

Herhsel's head perked up at the word, and Phoenix's attention snapped to the smooth female voice that spoke it. It had to be that one pretty Vigilante in the back, the one he'd noticed before, but he didn't see her right away. Instead he noticed the two grinning guards who were making themselves into... a chair. Then he saw the owner of that voice, the oddly tall and pretty and blonde Vigilante, seat herself right on top of the two men with a coquettish little kick of her legs. She uncrossed them dramatically, landing her right ankle on Phoenix's left shoulder. He and Hershel both were treated to a front-row view of her inner thigh. She fanned herself with a broad feathery monstrosity that matched the plume of feathers sprouting from her helmet. To top it all off, she giggled. "Now, let's talk a little while, Sir Defender."

Phoenix kept his eyes staunchly on her immaculately polished leather stiletto boot. "I want everyone to note where my eyes are right now!"

"Professor!" Luke gasped. "Your ears are all red!" Phoenix just barely saw Hershel moving out of the corner of his eye, covering as much of his face as he could with the brim of his hat. Blushing that hard looked painful.

Maya brayed in a laugh Phoenix had never heard from her before, a painfully loud mixture of embarrassment and pure joy. "Oh My _God_!"

The leggy- _lady!_ \- Vigilante spoke with all the honey and sugar of a fly trap. "Think about what you're asking to do, Sir Blue Knight. If Espella gets found guilty, what _position_ does that leave you in as her defender?"

 _Whatever "position" it leaves me in,_ Phoenix thought, _it's better than the one I'm in right now_!

"Hey, I just noticed!" Luke piped up. "She isn't wearing-"

Phoenix had never scrambled so hard for anything in his life,and he sure hadn't done it with tow other people aiming for the same target, but _by his badge_ he was covering Luke's innocent eyes along with Maya and Hershel. None of them stopped until his little head was wrapped up in a blinding wall of arms and sleeves. He was pretty sure they'd also lifted him off the floor in a massive super hug by accident. The Vigilantes were all laughing at them.

 _Man, am I glad Espella isn't awake to see this..._

Still, Luke managed to wriggle himself free from the tangle of arms. "-shoes like Espella's!"

"Oh, you're so kind to notice, little man!" With her leg shaken free from Phoenix's shoulder, the vixen Vigilante crossed it over her knee. Her manicured hand ran down the rich, soft leather. "I couldn't bear to let my delicate, perfect feet touch the dirty ground."

"Miss Foxy's stilettos are a Labyrinthian treasure!" said the... seat of Foxy's "chair." He extended an arm when Foxy stuck her leg out, holding the precious boot up by her calf. "The feeling of that pointed heel digging into one's back... oh, it's divine!"

Foxy giggled. "I don't remember giving you permission to speak, Servius."

"Oh, my lady!" Her chair shook as the two... components of it shuddered in bliss. "Rebuke me! Spare me no abuse!"

Luke quietly covered his face back up. "This feels weird to watch..."

Maya was bright red and grinning ear to ear. "Not to me!"

Phoenix looked to Hershel for anything, any kind of help because really, how was he supposed to come up with a response to that? For once, the professor met his eyes and it was his expression that Phoenix could clearly read. _Help me_ , it said, _I have no idea how to get us out of this situation_. It was up to him to save the professor from being speechless and embarrassed! Phoenix felt bolstered! He felt heroic! He felt like he actually knew what the professor felt when he did the exact same thing over and over again! Phoenix cleared his throat.

"All right, look. You can try to..." He struggled to find a word for whatever Foxy has attempted there. "... convince me all you want! I know down to the bottom of my heart that Espella's innocent, and I'll fight to the end to prove it!"

"Then you're fighting for nothing!" Boistrum bragged. "We have decisive evidence!"

"And again with that decisive evidence!" argued Phoenix. "You just say you have it, but I haven't even seen it! How am I supposed to know it even exists?"

"Really, Nick?" Maya muttered behind him. She must have given up being a parental block. "'Pics or it didn't happen' is your argument?"

"You hush up, Maya."

Captain Boistrum signaled to Shakey, who raised his bandanged hand. He was just barely gripping a little bauble in his hand a metal pendant with a red stone set inside. It was vaguely wing-shaped. It was hanging from a broken, dirty leather cord. It wasn't particularly interesting on its own.

"Real..." Words failed him. "Real decisive evidence you got there. Good job."

"This is Espella's beloved useless trinket!" the captain bellowed. "It never leaves her arm! Any true-bred Labyrinthian would know that!"

"They why have we never seen it before?" Luke asked.

Maya shrugged. "We're probably just not Labyrinthian-y enough."

One of the guards took Espella's limp arm and wagged it over her head, the pendant in question dangling down by a leather cord. "Only one in the city, and we found it right there on the floor-"

Phoenix was proud to say later that all of them pointed to Espella's wrist in unison.

"Lottalance!" Captain Boistrum went red. "The hell is that on her arm?!"

"I-I thought the one Shakey has was hers!" said Lottalance, flustered. "I didn't think to check!"

Phoenix snatched the broken necklace from Shakey, who dropped like a rock. Phoenix slipped it into his pocket. "Labyrinthia's finest."

Layton's shoulder were shaking. The professor had passed up covering his mouth and instead had his hand clamped over his eyes, the other arm fiercely crossed and tucked into his elbow. Phoenix could see him squeezing at his temples and trying not to lose his temper. _I guess when you're as smart as he is, watching someone be deliberately dumb is painful._ He put his hand on Hershel's shoulder, gave it a little rub and a squeeze, and watched him relax under his fingers. "You've got this. Keep it together."

Layton's hand swept down to cover his mouth so he could properly glare at Lottalance's tongue-lashing. "They're not exactly making the best argument for their own competence."

"They want a guilty verdict so bad they'll overlook anything." Phoenix shrugged. "It's nothing new."

"How do you manage it without losing your temper?" Hershel asked.

Phoenix gave him a reassuring smile. "Hey, sometimes losing your temper at the right time works to your advantage."

"Well then, Sir Defense!" Captain Boistrum bodily took him and Hershel and spun them around, pointing them at the stairs. "Explain these!"

Printed on the steps in red, the outlines of bootprints stood out against the natural grain of the wood. The prints smelled like Story ink.

Luke answered before either of them could. "Espella doesn't wear boots."

Layton nodded. "He's correct, she has no soles, just like most of you."

Maya snickered. "Oh, harsh! You gotta watch those homophones, there, professor."

The captain hollered, "Huddle!"

He gathered the Vigilantes together in a huddle with Espella at the center. Freed from the scrutiny of the collective guards, Phoenix took off to check out the rest of the platform. It was old and nearly rotten in places, which seemed to fit its age, but something was nagging him about it. There was absolutely nothing on this floor other than people. He checked the corners, he tripped over his feet rushing from one end to the other, he jiggled the railings, and nothing stuck out. It was just a floor of the tower.

He checked in on Hershel, who was doing one of his Layton Searches on one of the tower's support beams. He put a hand on his shoulder to keep them close, and he shoved down the butterflies he felt when Hershel relax into his palm. "How are you feeling?"

"Offended," came the answer.

Phoenix didn't blame him in the slightest. "Why are you looking for a puzzle here?"

"We're in a bell tower with no bell." He worked his fingers into a little gap in the wood work. Phoenix admired how Layton do so much with so little force. It was like he could soothe the hidden panel open by petting it gently enough. _Down, butterflies. You can relax down there, I'll let you out when this is all over..._ "Knowing the Storyteller's penchant for hidden doorways..."

The column opened up to a little box of crystals and gears and two prominent wing-shaped keyholes. The professor had pegged it yet again. Phoenix slipped the stray pendant into one of the slots. It clicked into place perfectly.

"This can't be a coincidence," Hershel mused.

"She is the Storyteller's daughter." Phoenix was only guessing, but he'd made a decent career out of guesses and bluffs. "If anyone was going to have a key to Labyrinthia's secret doors, it would be him or her... and he's not here right now."

"Then whoever wore this one..." Hershel pointed to the one in the lock and its broken, bloodied cord. Phoenix could tell it was blood, now that he looked close. Seeing it on evidence enough, he knew the colors, the smell, and even a bit of the texture at this point. It still gave him the shudders. "Is our true Fire Lord."

 _That woman with the Storyteller,_ Phoenix thought. _She's probably our most important person in this case, and none of us have any idea who she is. I have so many questions I want to ask her..._

Phoenix felt a heavy arm slam down on his shoulder and nearly jumped out of his skin. Captain Boistrum, herded by Luke and Maya, flanked by his Vigilantes, sincerely smiled at him.

"Defender, in light of the recent turn of this new, decisive evidence, we shall allow you to investigate and defend Espella Cantabella."

"And she's been upgraded from 'the Fire Lord' to just a suspect!" Maya parted the guards to display Espella's new resting place, a bed made from Foxy's... personal assistants kneeling end-to-end so she could lie across their backs. "Now she can get her strength back and testify later!"

"Uh... thank you! Everybody! Ladies, gentlemen..." He... had to say something for them, right? "Chairs?" That weird mechanism was still sitting behind him unopened, thogh, even after Hershel had been fiddling with it. It had to have two keyholes for a reason, and what had he told him about puzzles? Back when they were still "Professor Layton" and "Mr. Wright" to each other? If a puzzle can't be solved, then there's information missing...

He went to Espella and untied the pendant from her arm. It was on there right, like she was worried she would lose it. It obviously meant a lot to her, and here he was pulling it off of her in her faint. He felt like a heel. "Sorry, Espella. I'll give it right back when we're done."

Popping the key into its place, Phoenix and Hershel put the thing in the right order within seconds. The roof over them unfolded into a simple stepladder- "I don't want to hear it, Maya."- which he climbed even before it had fully unfolded to the floor.

If he had to guess, this was the Bell of Ruin. Its castings and glyphs matched the carvings in the Seal of Sages room perfectly, not to mention the color of the tarnished silver matched the dark greens and blues of the rocks. It hung proudly in the most beautiful setting of the whole bell tower. Roccoco-y swirls were carved into the woodwork, all of it stained dark to the point of being nearly black. Each of the four wrought-iron guard rails were molded with a different sacred animal: the Moon Fish for the Water Tribes, a badgermole for the old Earth Kingdom, a flying bison for the Air Nomads, and a dragon for the Fire Nation.

It was huddled against that Fire Nation rail that he found Kira. She cowered from him, wrapped up in her purple cloak like a child in a blanket, and Phoenix was struck by how young she must have been. Kira couldn't have been older than Espella. She might have been fourteen years old. He sat at the top of the ladder, blocking the Vigilantes from storming up and arresting her. Kira looked so small and helpless, and curse him, but he couldn't resist helping scared little girls. His heart went out to her too easily to ignore.

"Hey..." He put himself cross-legged on the floor so she could see him easily. He had to bend a little to look under the bell. "How you doin', Kira?"

"I-I don't know that name," Kira choked. "Please, leave me."

"You look scared." Phoenix tried to keep himself low and approachable. His voice got softer without him even trying to lower it. "Did someone try to hurt you?"

"I... I mustn't speak of it." Kira hunkered down in her purple. "If I say too much, I shall never return."

"Return to Labyrinthia?"

Kira didn't answer. She looked like she wanted to, but her eyes were far away, deep in thought. A few seconds of thinking later, and her hands flew to her temples and squeezed tight. She had a headache.

"Kira... I don't know what they did to you," Phoenix told her. "But me and the professor and Maya and Luke are going to try and find out who the Fire Lord is. I bet you know her better than we do. Would you like to help us find her?"

She didn't answer him. This was going to be harder than he thought. The Shades seemed like they followed the Fire Lord's orders without question, and from how she was cowering, she probably had them all pretty firmly under her thumb.

"I've seen where you live, in that place under the garden," he rambled a little. "It seems kind of cold down there. You probably get bored, working all the time, not having anything to do but your task."

"Coming to... Labyrinthia..." Kira stumbled over her words, trying to find the ones she could safely say. "Is... fun. I like seeing the people talking... and laughing..."

"We're gonna find the Fire Lord," he said, smiling at her. "She has to be punished for all the bad things she did to you."

That made Kira flinch back into the wall. "But... I have my task for a reason..."

Something struck him, and he felt like a bit of a genius for thinking of it. He hoped this would work, because it was the last card he had. "I'm going to tell everybody that firebenders aren't bad people. You can come to Labyrinthia and be a firebender and not be scared anymore."

Kira gasped at that, and pun not intended, a fire lit in her eyes. She spoke so softly, but so full of hope. It cracked Phoenix's heart in half. "I won't be punished for firebending?"

"No, you won't be." Phoenix leaned forward just a little as Kira started crawling towards him. "I can't imagine how terrible this place can be to live in if you're a firebender. They hurt you more than I've ever been hurt. But what they do here isn't right. The way they made you feel, like you were scared and alone and there was something wrong with you..."

The words came so easily. Phoenix, almost physically, felt so much smaller as the words brought back memories of his own childhood. He swallowed to gain his voice back as Kira took a seat on her knees in front of him. "But those things they say, and what they do... they have no excuse for it. They take their fear and their anger and they put it all on you so you're more like them, and that's wrong. What they did to you, and all of your Shade friends, is wrong. I want to make sure they never do it to anyone again."

Kira shivered in her robes. "You... and your friends... threw my Shade family over the walls..."

"Yeah..." he chuckled. "I heard a little bit of that. I'm sorry if we scared you, but they were trying to hurt us."

"Hurting others..." she admitted. "Can... be a task, sometimes."

"Being treated badly can do that sometimes..." he reasoned. "When all you know is other people being cruel to you, it's really easy to be cruel to someone else. Do you want to hurt other people?"

Kira shook her head.

"Come on..." He held out his hand. "Let's go tell everyone the truth."

"The truth..." Kira held her head. "Makes me hurt..."

"Sometimes it does. Sometimes figuring out the truth is hard, and it hurts, and not everybody is happy when you finally learn it." Phoenix shrugged. "But it... heals. It doesn't just make you feel better now, it keeps you better forever. And I want you and Espella and all your Shades and everyone in Labyrinthia to be healed." Oh, he could feel it. That stupid, saccharine line was going to send Kira back to the wall. There was no way she could take something that dumb seriously, even if Phoenix meant it from the bottom of his heart.

Kira crawled right into his lap and hugged him like she hadn't been hugged in years. He was starting to wonder if she _hadn't_ been hugged in years. He just held her until she was ready to let go, patting her back and letting her breathing even out. "I'm proud of you. Come on, let's go downstairs." He called down to the Vigilantes. "Comin' down, everything's okay!"

"Suspect comin' downstairs!" Boistrum echoed. "Everybody back up, give them space!"

He sent Kira down first and then hopped down the stepladder. Hershel took to his side almost immediately, and with the professor back at his side, he held back to keep and eye on the little Shade in the midst of "Labyrinthia's Finest". Kira looked so odd, her ornate purples sticking out in the Vigilante's greens and yellows. Maya and Luke immediately took to her sides as defense, but the Vigilantes obligingly sheathed their swords and let her pass. Espella had even started to wake up, and Kira gravitated to her and stood watch as she stood up from her Vigilante bed.

"Where am I?" Espella jolted when she spotted, and then again when she fully recognized, Kira. "What are you doing here?"

"I am very sorry," Kira said, "For what I did to you."

Espella blinked, confused for a moment. It seemed like her thoughts were a few seconds behind her, but for someone coming out of a dead faint, it was to be expected. She gave Kira the best smile she could manage, a tired and timid but sincere one. "You thought I was the Fire Lord. I suppose you did what you thought was right. I forgive you."

Now it was Kira's turn to look confused. "What? I mean for tonight... for the dragon."

"For the... for the dragon?"

Steps thundered up the Bell Tower stairs like the pounding of a judge's gavel, approaching fast, and everyone cleared away from the door.

She wore the royal purple of the Shades, layered over with the Storyteller's black robes and the golden gleam of bronze armor.

She stood taller than anyone in the room by virtue of every Labyrinthian shrinking at her approach.

She bashed the ground with each controlled step in her black leather boots.

She was a tall, black haired girl a little older than Espella.

The Vigilantes genuflected. "High Inquisitor Darklaw, my lady!"

"Y-you! YOU!" Maya shrieked. "Fire L-"

"I have been waiting for you to bring the Fire Lord to me for half an hour, and I find you up here trading small talk with enemies of the city." Darklaw cut through the Vigilantes like a knife, catching up both girls by their collars. Kira flinched into a pitiable cower; Espella's eyes glazed over and she went limp in Darklaw's hand. "Both of these firebenders are to be bound, tried, and executed tonight. Ready their cages in the Night Court."

"Y-yes, my lady!" Boistrum took Espella and Kira by the arms and lock-stepped them out of the Bell Tower.

"H-hey!" Luke wailed. "You can't-"

"All four of them are to be imprisoned," Darklaw ordered Foxy and her servants. "And dealt with after the Fire Lord is dead. All of them are to be separated. Have the one in the top hat and the one in the robes clapped in irons. Have the boy and the defender bounded and gagged."

All three of them stood at attention and saluted. "Yes, my lady!"

"The rest of you are-"

"HEY!"

Phoenix had no desk, so he slammed his hand down on the railing of the Bell Tower, and broke it. He shattered under his hand, sending a plank of wood rolling down the sides of the tower and falling into a bonfire that had been started at its base.

But it got Darklaw's attention. She glared daggers straight through Phoenix, her face barely showing emotion but her eyes boring through him like drills through concrete. She terrified him enough to make his throat seize up a moment before he got his voice back. "I... am Espella's attorney. She has a right to be defended in a court of law. Y-you don't get to decide whether she lives or dies!"

"Oh..." She smirked. "But I do."

It set off something ugly in his belly, something that twisted around his gut and held his heart like a snake. It felt like hate, and he had to keep talking his way through it or it would choke him. "Y-you can try that intimidation schtick all you want! But I've been punched, tazed, knocked out, dropped off a bridge..." He had to think of anything else that had happened to him before. "And threatened with death more than once, and I'm still here! And you coming in here and tossing out a few orders isn't going to intimidate me into letting you get away with murder!"

Darklaw stood before him- the Fire Lord, the "High Inquisitor" which must have been something important- and sized him up. And she smiled again, and did he hate that smile. "Hmph. Put up your struggle, Defender. Buy her a few more minutes of false hope. It will be worth it to see the pain in her eyes after dragging out her death sentence for a few long, unnecessary minutes."

She turned on her heel and left. "Ready the defense's bench in the night court."

The rest of the Vigilantes filed out after her, and once they were well out of sight, the four of them gasped for air together.

"I-I couldn't say it!" Maya shrieked. "She could have killed us with firebending on the spot and she would have gotten away with it!"

"This is gonna be a long walk back to the night court..." Phoenix said with dread.

"Um, Mr. Phoenix?" Luke pointed down to the bonfire... and the mass of stands, benches, and judge's lecturn before the fire, as well as the massive cage they hung above the flames on pulleys. "I think that might BE the Night Court..."

Suddenly there were hands on his face. Hershel was pulling him down to eye level, speaking quietly and quickly so he was forced to listen. "Phoenix, I have one final lead I feel I must follow. Look over your left shoulder, straight ahead."

He did so. Labyrinthia's great wall surrounded the whole city, but was the first time he'd noticed the one patch in the red clay walls that was green and windowed. He gasped. "The Storyteller's house!"

"It's the only place I can imagine that has the evidence we need to prove Espella's innocence." Layton pulled Phoenix's attention back to his face. "I'm trusting you to keep this trial going for as long as you can. Luke and I will move quickly, but until we get back-"

Phoenix forced a big smile. "Like I wouldn't defend her with everything I had anyway?"

Layton's hands on his cheek flexed in the tiniest way, and Layton's dark eyes flickered over his face, checking him. For his sincerity? For a tell? They were nearly nose to nose, and Layton still hadn't let him go.

"... when this is over." He split from Phoenix, taking Luke by the hand. "We haven't a moment to lose, Luke! Quickly, to the Storyteller's home!"

"Good luck, Phoenix and Maya!" Luke shouted behind them.

"This..." Phoenix fluffed his coat. "Is going to _suck_."


	18. The Final Trial: The Fifth Day 2

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

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The Storyteller's home was a straight shot down Labyrinthia's main street. It lorded over the city in jade and malachite, the door ever watched by the owls carved into the stone. Even at a full sprint, it felt like running to the horizon. Layton felt the crush of time against his back, knowing Espella's freedom, maybe her life, was at risk. Phoenix was depending on him to find something, and the frank reality that he didn't know what he was looking for all cracked down on his legs. He couldn't go fast enough. Each stride felt like a wade through quicksand. Why couldn't he go faster?

Luke, free from the eyes of the town, bent himself an air scooter to keep up with the professor. "Why isn't anyone stopping us?"

Considering they were running full tilt towards the Labyrinthian royal palace, for lack of a better word, Luke had a good point. "I wouldn't know the answer, Luke," he replied. "We should count ourselves lucky for the reprieve."

A thought occurred to Luke. "Unless they're all at the trial, watching Mr. Phoenix defend Espella..."

He wet his throat. "That is most likely, yes!"

Marble steps lead up to massive wooden doors. Layton staggered up the steps and laid his hands against the wood, and with a heave he pushed with his whole body. It gave just a little, even bounced against the door jamb. It must have opened the other way. It didn't seem locked.

With that, his strength left him completely. Without the distraction of running, then talking, he could feel his body turning off bit by bit. He ached from his bones, especially in his knees and calves. Hunger rattled his belly and clenched it hard enough to fold him in half. His head was pounding from dehydration. Despite gulping down the stagnant air, he never felt like he was catching his breath. He folded against the door, dropping to his knees in sudden and terrible exhaustion. He was getting old, he was almost 40 and hadn't eaten or drank since... oh dear...

"Professor!" Luke wormed his way underneath his shoulders and tried to push him back to his feet. Layton struggled to stand without shaking. "Be strong, professor! You can do it! We just need to keep our spirits up, like Maya!"

"Yes..." The thought made him smile. He supported himself on Luke's shoulder as he got his legs back. "Yes, of course. What would Maya say if she saw me crumbling like a dry biscuit?"

"She'd encourage you!" Luke sincerely praised. "And she'd have food for you in her sleeves! And she'd say something like-"

Luke broke into his best impression of Maya, pumping his fists and puffing out his cheeks. "You can do it, Professor! And then, we'll all get out of here and eat food, and- and ride escalators!"

Layton broke into a laugh. "Ride escalators?"

"Yeah!" said Luke, not dropping his Maya voice. "Escalators, because they're stairs except it's their job to move you!" He shouted his decree to the heavens! "And we'll ride them and stomp on them and say, 'Take that, you stairs! That was for Labyrinthia!'"

He laughed the air back into his lungs. Oh that helped, it was as if a layer of grime had been scrubbed off of his heart. He gripped at the door with renewed vigor and started to pry it open. "And Phoenix will join us, outwardly embarrassed but quietly having fun."

Luke dug his hands into the little crack Layton made in the door and tugged, and it began to swing open wide. "And Espella can join us! All four of us and Espella, out of Labyrinthia with nothing to worry about, having fun together!"

The door flew open, and Layton strode inside with renewed vigor. "Thank you, my boy!"

"Not a problem, professor!" Luke tugged the brim of his little hat. "Helping gentlemen in distress is the duty of every apprentice!"

Without Luke's encouragement, the Storyteller's palace would have felt much more daunting. The grand entry hall was clearly modeled after the ancient Earth King's estate in Ba Sing Se before it was destroyed. Grand columns, hanging owl banners, and bluster filled the empty and soulless space. The staring owl eyes no longer filled him with the same dread as they had in the library. Layton pressed on, his fatigue suppressed into only a faint shake in his shoulders.

"Where do we start?" asked Luke.

His intuition was speaking to him. This grand hall felt suspiciously empty, even for its size. No chairs, no side doors, no benches, no places to gather and no stairs to climb, thankfully. He wouldn't be surprised if it was a Potemkin palace. He scanned the walls. He had no concrete proof, but had a fairly firm hunch that the Storyteller was an earthbender. However, he worked closely with Fire Lord Darklaw, and she was most likely a firebender herself. If there were a hidden door, there would be a mechanism only she could open. His eyes fell on unlit torches set in sconces high up on the columns. Too high for a normal person to light, but for a firebender...

It was a stretch to get his flames out that far, but he managed. Once all the torches were fully ablaze, a panel opened in the ceiling. A golden cage elevator on a chain dropped down to the floor and opened on its own. Layton stepped inside quickly. Luke followed after a moment's hesitation.

"Stand close to me," he ordered.

"Er, right, professor." Luke tucked himself under the professor's arm. He kept a steady grip on Luke's shoulder as he shut the door, and once it latched, the cage began to rise. It seemed to be made for one person at a time, and he could tell roughly where that person would have stood from the dark patch on the cage's floor from their shoes. Suspended from a single chain, it would have tilted horribly if they were to stand apart. The cage rose high into the ceiling, and the door closed beneath them, bathing them in darkness.

Out of the darkness, a thousand eyes sprang to light. Only Layton's hand kept Luke from jumping. Owl eyes, wolf eyes, bear eyes set in stone gargoyles, their faces twisted and their teeth bared. They glowed white in the pitch black. They were the only source of light, and they cast eerie stripes of color and long black shadows over Luke and Layton as they passed. The chamber echoed only with the clanking mechanism pulling the chain, but in his mind's ear, he cold hear the beast's angry snarls, as if they were scaring him away.

It might have worked on a native Labyrinthian, but Layton found himself hardened to the display. His steady hand calmed Luke, and they rode the elevator in silence.

"Professor..." Luke broke the silence. "What are you going to do with Mr. Phoenix 'when this is over'?"

Layton burned with embarrassment. "Ah..." he answered quietly. "You heard that."

"I do listen when you talk."

"Yes, well..."

"Do you like him?"

"I do indeed, Luke." That was an easy answer. He let himself smile a bit, even if Luke could only see it in flashes. "He's proven to be very clever and capable. We couldn't have gotten this far without his help."

"No," Luke insisted. "Do you _like_ him?"

"Oh." He adjusted his hat. He saw no reason not to tell Luke the truth, it was simply... a harder answer. "I... am not entirely sure myself. I have found myself coming to rely on him, and I do enjoy his company. However, sometimes extreme circumstances can forge that sense of camaraderie between people who otherwise would not be compatible."

Luke huffed and put his hand to his hip. "That's a lot of big words for 'I don't think he likes me back'."

"Luke Triton!"

"I'm serious!" he argued. "And that's what you're planning, isn't it? To tell him after we've solved this mystery?"

"Er-" He cleared his throat. Luke was alarmingly astute. Either that, or his own thoughts were a bit predictable. "Yes."

"I'm proud of you!" Luke didn't give him a chance to disagree. "It's hard to tell people how you feel, probably especially for you because you get shy about your feelings. Remember Monte d'Or and aaaaall the trouble we had to go through because you wouldn't talk to Henry?"

He meagerly rebutted. "That was entirely different."

"Well, I say it'll be great!" Luke changed the subject quickly. "You and Mr. Phoenix will both have the rest of your lives to figure out how much you like each other!" He adjusted his cap again in a show of bravado. "You grown-ups never want to just talk to each other."

Layton had to laughed. He'd just been lectured and given relationship advice by an eleven year old. "Indeed, Luke. He shall know exactly how I feel once we crack this case open."

Light shined down on them from above, a new door opening to let them into a new place. Their eyes adjusted to the new, calmer light.

Roses of every color grew in lush, pruned bushes. Spirit water flowed down fountains and up trellises into the roots, and Layton and Luke both took a bitter drink. This water tasted of dirt. The cavern above them was impeccably carved into a recreation of the night sky, constellations in all the correct places. The brighter lights gave off a warmth and a faint hum that told Layton they were electric. Marble arches and pebbly paths wound their way to a two-story white marble bungalow.

"It's less ostentatious than I was expecting." Luke resettled his shoulder bag. "I was thinking there would be gold and jewels."

Layton found himself agreeing. There were no benches to rest upon, or tables for picnic lunches. This was a space meant for one man and his passions, no more, no less. Still, the roses weren't going to acquit Espella. He pressed on, opening the front door of the small house as easily as he would his bedroom door.

Fittingly enough, it was a bedroom door. Specifically, Espella's, for who else's would it have been? The room was chock full of the kind of massive stuffytoys only the rich would buy new for their children. Dressers and vanities decorated in gold filigrees sat buried under hairbrushes and ribbons, and against every wall, there were books. The low bookcases were at the perfect height for a child a little under Luke's size. Across from them, a twin canopy bed sat right next to a doorway open to an unlit room. There was a plain, plastic light switch on the ornately painted wall. The sight of it made his head spin.

Luke skimmed over the spines of the books. "These are all store-bought! Little children's books."

It felt a touch invasive, but Layton opened a drawer and pulled out a little shirt. It was smaller than Espella was now. "Espella must not have been here in a very long time. Her story matches up." He replaced the clothing and pulled back the bed curtain. The bed was made tidy with little dolls propped up against the pillows. One even looked a bit like Espella. What stood out to him, however, was the pink leather-bound handmade book. He picked it up and opened it without thinking. The illustrations were colorful and rich. The paper smelled of berries and faintly of raw cabbage, but there wasn't a trace of Story ink. He read it aloud.

"Long ago in a little town, firebenders were making trouble."

"Ey?" Luke pulled away from the pile of toys he'd been investigating and joined the professor.

"They did not care how bad they made everyone feel." He kept flipping through the pages. "They did what they wanted and made everyone sad. One day, a brave little girl caught a bad firebender and put her in time out."

"Very reasonable." Luke approved. "Good on her."

"When she asked why the firebender did bad things, the firebender said that the Fire Lord told her to. The Fire Lord made bad things happen, and that she couldn't help but do what he said."

The book ended. Layton checked to see if he'd missed a page, but he hadn't. It was just over. He closed it, feeling a touch underwhelmed.

"And that was it?" Luke must have felt the same way. "She doesn't catch the Fire Lord and stop bad things from- oooh."

"'Oh' indeed," Layton realized along with Luke. "This isn't a story. It's an explanation. From the handwriting, I'd say the Storyteller made this many years ago."

"It could be a clue to Espella's innocence!" Luke jumped at the idea. "Why would the Storyteller write a story about the Fire Lord _if_ Espella is the Fire Lord?"

"Loquacious but spot-on." Layton passed the book to Luke for safekeeping. It was a start, at least. He felt for the light switch around the door to the darkened room and flipped it on.

For once, Layton identified with the Storyteller, for they both kept a very messy office. It was beautiful and homey at the same time, done up in constellation globes, artifacts, a grand piano, and pictures in frames. So many pictures were of a darling little Espella and a woman who must have been her mother. The young Storyteller in these photos was a handsome man himself.

"I... I don't understand." Luke held up one of the photos of Espella and her father. They were both young and smiling, playing in the sun together in a grassy park. "They both look so happy together. How did Espella get to where she was scared to talk to her own father?"

The professor could hear the faintest tremor in Luke's voice. Luke and his father, Clark, had a somewhat thorny relationship that stayed distant and estranged even while on the mend. No doubt it was stirring up some rocky feelings, or empathy that ran deep enough to shake him. Layton pulled Luke into a soft hug and patted his back, letting Luke bury his head into his coat.

"If there is anything troubling you, you will tell me, won't you, Luke?"

"I will." Luke gave him a tight hug back and pulled away, mostly composed. "It just struck a chord, is all."

"You did make me notice something interesting, though." Layton took the next photo he saw off a shelf. "I haven't seen any of Espella in her teen years. They end at her as a small- Luke! Look here!"

It was Espella and High Inquisitor Fire Lord Darklaw as little girls. It was surreal, seeing that terrifying figure in a frilly little dress and smiling for a camera. They were happy. They were cute. They were both wearing those little wing-shaped pendants around their necks.

Luke gasped. "It was hers!"

Layton pocketed the picture. "If they are childhood friends, that makes her cold demeanor even more confusing."

His eyes fell on the low ceiling of this two-story home. "Very confusing... Luke, search the house for stairs. We need to check out the upper floor."

It took only a few seconds of searching before Luke found the gaping stairwell. A plain-looking door opened up into a pit that dropped down into blackness, with the stairs spiraling around the round wall and up into a stained glass window. Layton and Luke scaled the rail-less stairs in silence, wary of what they'd find at the top.

The Storyteller was a man of rooms within rooms, books within books, and caves within caves. This was the very last, a secluded room at the top of those stairs with the stained glass making up the floor. Metal suits of armor stood watch along the circular wall, six in total. The whole place glowed with an unearthly light, lit from nowhere and yet shining from all directions.

There, back defiantly to them, was the Storyteller.

Layton felt something ugly settle in his gut. He hesitated to call it hate, but it boiled his blood and made his skin crawl. He could feel himself drawing back his shoulders and clenching his fists without thinking about it. When he spoke, he spoke loud enough for his voice to echo. "Arthur Cantabella. I might have suspected you were still alive."

"Hershel Layton." The Storyteller turned slowly. In his hands, he held his metal-tipped quill and the great tome of The Story. His one uncovered eye blaze with fury, but his voice never rose higher than it needed to be heard. "You have intruded on my city, interfered with my Story, attacked my Shades, and _traumatized_ my daughter." He cracked open the Story. "And now you have broken into my home. I have a high tolerance for interlopers, Mr. Layton, and _it has long since run out_."

He put his pen to paper, and the metal armor surged to life around him. He braced his stance and took them all in. 9 feet tall, all of them, wielding swords and axes. They moved swiftly, and while Luke dashed out of the way, he stayed to fight them off. It wasn't the first time he had taken on clockwork golems and come out on top, and if they were going to get anything from the Storyteller, he had to be rid of his guards.

It wasn't so easy, though. Although he could twist out of the way of hulking swings and slow follow-throughs, his flames rolled off metal plating to no effect. He could climb all over the suits and leap off them so they drove their swords into each other, but they wouldn't stop. They just kept plowing into him, one after the other, and eventually he would misstep and fall into one of their sharp blades.

It wasn't until a sword lifted up on its own that he had a horrible realization.

The Storyteller was metalbending all of them at once.

The new puzzle in his mind played out as he kept all of them together in the center, giving up firebending and now only keeping out of their reach. He had to be rid of all of them at once, get them away from where the Storyteller could bend them, and keep Luke out of danger-

Where was Luke?!

He caught a sound of protest from the Storyteller, and the rustle of paper in the wind, and his eyes followed the noise. A flash of Luke's blue jumper shot out from between the armor suits, and the Story flew into the air. He aimed. He fired.

The book went up in flames, and the metal all plunged into the ground at once, shattering the glass and dropping him.

"Professor!"

It was a horrible feeling, all of it. The plunge of the ground under his feet, the dread of Luke's voice screaming his name in a panic, the sudden gulf of darkness under his feet that was already swallowing up the metal suits. His hand clutched at something, desperate to live, Luke needed him and _Phoenix needed to know_ -!

His feet hit floor, and he landed with a whuff of breath knocked out of him, and no worse. The metal guards plummeted into the dark, and there he was, standing safe on an outcropping of stone that had not been there before. His hand was clenched around the handle of a sword which had stabbed into the wall of the pit at an unnatural angle.

He needed to breathe.

He was alive.

The stone under his feet shifted, and he rode it all the way back into that secret room. Luke plowed into him and hugged him tight, and the Storyteller, looking arguably worse than he felt, approached them both.

"I..." He took a deep, labored breath. "Mr. Layton. My anger... blinded me. I was not thinking, until I heard your boy's cry... As a parent, I could not ignore a plea for help like his."

"A parent..." Layton collected his thoughts out loud. "And yet, Espella stands trial for her life at this very moment."

Perhaps he should have kept the thoughts to himself. The earth itself roared all around them as the Storyteller's scream shook the walls. He covered Luke's head while little bits of debris bounced off the back of his head.

"What?! How?!" he raged. "Darklaw is supposed to be executing the Fire Lord Kira at this very moment!"

"You were going to make Miss Kira the Fire Lord?!" Luke was aghast. "That poor lady?!"

"We found Miss Kira locked in the top floor of the Bell Tower," Layton explained, "And Espella accused and all but sentence to death for being the Fire Lord and orchestrating your murder."

"No... No! That's wrong!"

"Then, Mr. Cantabella, you must come with me as quickly as you can," he demanded. "Or your daughter's life is forfeit. And I must ask you one last thing."

"Anything for her!"

"You must tell us," said Layton, "The entire truth."


	19. The Final Trial: The Fifth Day 3

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

Note: New computer. My ability to play video games is back. I'm happy, but harder to motivate to write. My apologies!

* * *

He had so little evidence to work with, even by his own standards. Granted, he never put his cases and "standard" in the same sentence. It took all he had to keep Darklaw at bay so he could scrape together every little bit of case that he could. Stalling hadn't worked for a second. Every attack Darklaw threw at him had to be met with equal force or Espella, not to mention he and Maya, were going to be lost in the crossfire.

 _All right,_ he tallied in his head. _Collect your thoughts. Review the knowns. The court accepts that Espella wasn't alone in the Tower. Those footprints prove that there was another person on the floor who wasn't a Vigilante. They also know that both pendants are needed to open the lock to the belfry, but I can't conclusively prove that Espella wasn't keeping it in her pocket. I know the pendant must belong to to Darklaw... but how do I prove it?_

"Please, Miss Kira- sorry." Phoenix shook his head. She might have been Kira, but she wasn't responding to the name at all. He had to remind himself to be patient and kind to her, his only witness. He also had Espella to keep an eye on. She'd been placed on the witness stand as if she were fine, but her eyes had kept that dead-to-the-world vacant look and she responded to absolutely nothing. "Shade Sister, if I could please."

He had to be kind, because Darklaw had no kindness to spare. She slammed her armored hand into the Inquisitor's bench and snarled. "I have had enough of this farce! The court- no- the citizens of Labyrinthia all know that firebenders as a whole are liars, manipulators, and murderers! To give the words of a convicted criminal equal weight to the High Inquisitor's is an insult to justice itself! The court will disregard all of this wretch's testimony!"

"Objection!" Phoenix shouted back. "Regardless of her bending ability, the witness is still a person, and without her testimony we run the risk of sentencing an innocent person to death! The Inquisition is clearly trying to intimidate the witness into silence!"

"I..." The judge squirmed in his seat, clearly uncomfortable. He had been since the beginning of the trial, and honestly, Phoenix didn't blame him. He was starting to get Von Karma flashbacks. "I am truly sorry, My Lady High Inquisitor Darklaw, but the defender is... reasonable! She must be allowed to testify!"

 _You know you're in for it when the judge starts apologizing to the prosecution- er, Inquisition._ Phoenix took a deep breath.

"Man, Nick, people being scared on the witness stand is one thing..." Maya put a hand to her lips in distress. "But Kira's up there looking like a beaten dog! What'd Darklaw do to her?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but as he did, pieces fell into place. Kira's presence, the footprints on the stairs, the pendant on the floor-! He had an idea there! All he had to do was confirm. He stood to full height, putting on his Layton Stoneface for Kira's benefit. "Sister Kira, your testimony."

Kira spoke in frightened whimpers, and her eyes darted to Darklaw at every few words. "I have told you all I can. I was ordered to ascend the Bell Tower and kill the Storyteller. Once I had completed my task, I was attacked and knocked unconscious. When I woke, I was locked in the belfry."

"We didn't see you bending the Fire Dragon from a distance. What that due-"

"To my Cloak of Night." Kira repeated an earlier bit of testimony. "Which shields me from sight to all but the other Shades..."

"Which we found at the crime scene!" Maya pulled out the cloak from her sleeves and wrapped herself in it, leaving her a floating head. "Thanks to Nick tripping over it, of course."

 _I wish you'd treat my amazing discovery with a little more weight. Even if I did just trip over it..._ Phoenix cleared his throat. "Sister Kira, did you get a good look at your attacker?"

There went Kira's eyes, from his to Darklaw and back to his. "No."

Darklaw had to be keeping her from saying it directly. He would have to tease the information out of Kira little by little, catch Darklaw in a contradiction. "Do you remember anything about your assailant at all?"

"I remember... fighting back. I was scared... s- they came upon me with such fury and hatred..."

He must have been hitting something important. Darklaw looked like she was getting ready to jump out of her skin. Kira, emboldened, kept speaking.

"So I grabbed onto something, something hard and round, and I pulled at it over and over again. It snapped and came off in my hand... but by then, I had heard the bell."

"The... bell?" Phoenix looked up to the belfry. "I didn't hear the bell ring, did you?"

"Not the great bell," Kira explained. "The Bell of Sleep. We ring it in the ears of those we want asleep-"

"Objection!" Darklaw shouted. "We've no proof such a bell-"

"All Shades have one!" Kira pulled the little silver trinket out of her sleeve. "Look! We are to use it when we carry out our tasks! Look, here is your proof!"

Darklaw countered, "Then that is the object that came off in her hand!"

"No, Your High Lord Inquisitor Lady. I believe she's referring-" He held up the snapped pendant and its dirty broken cord. "To this! Not only found at the crime scene, but covered in the attacker's blood!"

"Good lord!" cried the judge. "What decisive evidence!"

"It's like they're getting paid to say it," quipped Maya.

"That- that's it!" Kira cried. "That's the pendant! 'Twas around her very neck!"

"Really?" Phoenix allowed himself to smirk. "Saw it plain as day, did you?"

"I- I-" Kira straightened up her shoulders. "I did!"

Darklaw slammed the desk hard enough to leave claw marks. "I have had enough-"

"No, my Mistress, I have had enough!" Kira snapped right back. "we trust you, my lady! We trust you and love you, and we follow you orders without question, and this is how you treat us in the daylight?"

"Shut your mouth!" Darklaw raged.

"I won't! I refuse to lie on your behalf any longer!" Kira threw out her arm in an accusing point. "My Lady, the Fire Lord, is the one! She put me to sleep with the bell and locked me up in the bell tower! She ordered me to kill the Storyteller! It was all her!"

The judge brayed, "Th- THE Fire Lord?!"

The cry sent the court into an uproar. Citizens pounded at the guardrails and railed at the judge, demanding that this trial make sense! The High Inquisitor and the Fire Lord, the same person? Espella found at the scene but not the murderer? The dead speaking?

Maya and Phoenix shared a high five. The teen leaned in to ask, "So, where's our 'get out of Labyrinthia free' card?"

"I don't know..." Phoenix checked on Espella. She was still dead to the world. "Remember how we remembered the truth about where we came from, and all our memories came back at once?"

"Yeah?"

"Nobody else's has..." Phoenix knew. They wouldn't be crying for their Storyteller, or defending Darklaw, otherwise. "We found one truth. We've gotta crack one more, the Big One, and I think... it might go farther than this."

Espella spoke up from the tumult. "I am the Fire Lord. I killed everyone in the Great Fire."

"No! Espella, you mustn't believe that!"

That voice struck down every sound at once, stunning the court into utter silence. Even Darklaw seemed shocked to see the Storyteller standing before the witness stand, winded and sweating, with Layton and Luke at his sides. They had a few moments of quiet to catch their breaths before the court all started up at the same time, rumbling the city like thunder as they protested.

Phoenix cheered. "Hershel!"

"Daddy..." Espella's tone stayed steady, but tears glimmered in the firelight where they ran down her cheeks. "Daddy, I didn't mean to do it..."

"Please!" The Storyteller begged. "Espella, do not think that! Nothing that happened that day was your fault!" He raised his hands, and the court fell into silence once again. "Everyone, lend me your ears!"

He began a long introduction for a speech promising to explain anything and everything, but Phoenix missed most of it. He was pulling Layton and Luke behind the defense's bench with him and Maya, letting the weary professor rest his arms on the table. "You two okay?"

"He's getting really tired," Luke explained, "And I'm sort of feeling it, too."

Maya tugged on his sleeve. "I haven't been saying anything with the trial going on, but I'm actually really hungry again."

Phoenix's stomach growled at the mere mention of the word "hungry". "I've been so distracted..."

Luke flinched. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Phoenix clamped a hand on his shoulder before he went any farther. "Ah-ah-ah, don't talk like that. You didn't do anything, we're just all... human, and we need to eat." Letting Luke go, he patted Hershel on the back until the professor had the strength to stand up again. "When we're out of here... we'll make Storyteller pay for lunch."

Hershel chuckled. "And ride escalators."

"Hey, that's a good idea!" Maya whispered. "It's the ultimate 'bite me!' to stairs!"

The Storyteller took the stand beside his daughter and spoke. "Everyone, hear me well... Medical Trial B.2-5."

The numbers must have meant something. They didn't to Phoenix, and Hershel, Luke, and Maya all looked just as underwhelmed as he felt. Everything was just very quiet before everyone woke up in one massive groan. The sounds shook Espella out of her stupor even while Kira was frantically rubbing her eyes. "I... my vision's still foggy! Is my glaucoma gone or not? Do I still need my insulin?!"

"Well, I feel pretty great!" said the judge with a beaming smile. "My voice is back, and so soon after my surgery!"

"Oi! I thought this was a rehab camp!" Emeer shouted from the crowd. "What am I doing with alcohol _in my hand_?!"

"And so the truth is laid out before you." The Storyteller addressed Phoenix and Hershel. "In as few words as I can manage to explain, this is a medical trial for my company, Labrelum Inc. We make pharmaceuticals based on ingredients kept as close to their natural state as possible. All of the citizens of Labyrinthia are here as volunteers for chronic health ailments." He spoke up, addressing the crowd. "The medical trial will have to be concluded early, thanks to the meddling of this foolhardy lawyer."

Phoenix felt more than he saw Hershel gearing up, ready to defend him, before Kira spoke. "Hang on! He didn't 'interlope', he was trying to save me from being executed! I don't see how your medical trial justifies setting your attack dog on me!"

Darklaw fumed, and curls of flame spilled from her nostrils.

"And she's even a firebender!" Kira nearly wailed, so offended that she was grabbing at the table to collect herself. "Why is she allowed to walk around in nice clothes while I had to live in a basement?!"

"My gracious!" Mary gasped from above. "I thought I'd dreamed it! The one under the town! I lived there! And I'm an earthbender!"

A wave of discussion went through the crowd, and to Phoenix's alarm, most of Labyrinthia had been a Shade at some point. A few of the guards were even talking about being Shades, and he didn't miss the look of collective horror that went over all of the Vigilantes. Hershel caught his eyes, his dour expression speaking volumes. This went further than either of them thought. He had to get a handle on this, and fast.

"Objection! Stop! Explain!" Phoenix pounded his desk. "So this is a medical trial. Why does everyone think it's the 100 Years War?"

"Some of the patients here are suffering from emotional or mental ailments, not just physical ones. I replaced their memories of the modern era so that they might be-"

Phoenix stopped him with a slam on his desk. He didn't miss that, the way the Storyteller's eyes were starting to drift towards Espella, and how Espella had gone from absently listening to suddenly alert and grimacing. "Stop. You erased their memories?"

Maya cut in. "You mean you brainwashed them."

The Storyteller frowned, and when Phoenix checked, Darklaw was... smiling. Like she was just as happy he'd been caught in an awkward explanation. When the Storyteller spoke again, it was with carefully chosen words. "I have technology at my disposal which can help direct mental states. I pulled people out of traumatizing situations and unhealthy cycles of thought, and placed them in an environment where they could feel safe and protected."

"So you convinced them they were somewhere and someone they weren't," Maya summarized. "Which is brainwashing."

Hershel cut in, his voice cold and cutting. "And I doubt the firebenders felt safe and protected."

"I deserve that." The Storyteller hung his head. "In my attempts to keep the town historically accurate-"

"Objection! Luke, the storybook."

"Right, professor!"

"What-" Phoenix lost his thought as Luke put down a giant, pink storybook on the defense's table. "... it's pink"

"Where did you get that?" Espella gasped.

"Where did you get that?!" The Storyteller raged. "Don't touch it! It's very delicate!"

"It looks fairly well-made," remarked the judge. Phoenix had nearly forgotten he was there. "Did you craft this yourself, Mr. Storyteller?"

"I believe he did," Layton explained, voice reaching out to the court. "This is a picture book, crafted by hand by the Storyteller himself, presumably for Espella's benefit. Within its pages, it details in very simple terms that firebenders are instructed to do terrible things by the Fire Lord. Tell me, Mr. Storyteller; why did you find it necessary to teach a young Espella that firebenders themselves are responsible for 'bad things'?"

The Storyteller sunk under the heavy glare of, presumably, every firebender in the room. Even Espella was looking aghast, moving away from her father. He buckled under the shame. "It... begins a long time ago. No doubt, much of it does not concern you. But... perhaps it is time to explain."

"Mr. Cantabella." Darklaw growled from her table. "Think about what you are about to say. All our work will have been for nothing."

"Look around us, Eve." The Storyteller took off his mask, exposing his haggard face in full, the hollow cheeks and tired eyes. His eyes fell on Espella and lingered there, even as she shrunk under his gaze. "It all has been for nothing."

Espella pulled into herself. Darklaw set her shoulders. Phoenix's little gang pulled in close, shoulders touching for support. The gallery leaned in to listen. The Storyteller began.

"Newton Belduke, the Alchemist, and I grew up in Republic City, in the little Ba Sing Se district. Our grandparents had seen the very fall of the Earth Kingdom. We grew up on stories of its strength and glory, but by the time were were men, it was a long-passed dream. But those tales of secret caves, squirreled away tombs of the old world we'd grown to love, spoke to us. Inspired us to seek out a bigger world."

"The Dai Li caverns?" Phoenix asked, dreading the answer.

"The same." The Story- Mr. Cantabella sighed with sadness at the judgmental murmur that came from the gallery. "The Dai Li began with good intentions. They were founded by Avatar Kyoshi. They were an important part of history."

"They brainwashed people and murdered them," Maya reminded.

"Nonetheless..." He got off the subject quickly. "Newton and I sought more. We were inseparable friends, as close as brothers, and one day while paddling a little boat in the bay, we came across a hollow stone. We explored it together, and came across what lies below Labyrinthia even now: the spirit spring, and the Dai Li headquarters built around it."

The gallery collectively shivered. That's what it felt like. It literally felt like that, up from his feet, and Phoenix didn't have time to wonder how weird that was. Cantabella kept talking.

"It had never been used. It was as if stepping backward in time, emerging from the modern world into a perfect bubble of the past. It was like a dream. The flowers that bloomed there were beautiful, unlike anything we'd ever seen before! And there, at the very bottom, unearthed and yet untouched-"

He lifted his arms up, framing the Bell Tower behind him. "Was the Great Bell."

Phoenix nodded. "The Bell of Ruin."

The gallery murmured, and Cantabella and Espella both winced. Cantabella sighed. "I... came to know of that title much later. I wasn't educated enough to read the runes at the time. I was no archaeologist, I was simply a man of business, and Newton was a man of science. We took the seeds from the cave flowers, planted them above ground, and patented them. Newton found their uses, and I sold them to companies at a percentage. By the time we had graduated university, we were company owners, wealthy, and married. And soon after, we were both fathers. My dear little Espella, and Newton's little Eve."

Lots of little thoughts went through the crowd behind him, a lot of eyes settling on Darklaw. One thing stuck out at Phoenix hard enough to jab him in the heart: "I didn't think the Alchemist even _had_ a daughter."

"The 'Eve' in question, I presume." Layton laid a photo down on the bench. Phoenix gave it a once-over before airbending it to the judge. The professor continued, "I would also presume 'Darklaw' to be a pseudonym, Miss Eve Belduke."

Eve Darklaw only confirmed. "It is."

"The possibilities of the spirit flowers seemed endless. We needed to conduct a medical trial." Cantabella explained. "I let my money and my dreams dictate my actions. I made a village in a valley, isolated and immersed in nature, for my volunteers to live and work within. It was my little playhouse of Earth Kingdom buildings and costume. Newton and I made our summer homes there, and to celebrate our success, we made a bell tower to house the wonderful bell we had discovered. It seemed like a fitting tribute to our good fortune."

There was the slightest pause as Cantabella stopped his story. He seemed to be bracing himself for the next part. Phoenix could recognize steeling oneself up for hard news, from the little twitches and forced steady breathing. He checked on the newly discovered Eve.

 _Woah..._ A sympathetic shiver went down Phoenix's back at the sight of Eve Belduke. It was like every single muscle in her body pulled at once. Every bit of visible skin pulled taut against bone, and her teeth clenched hard enough to him to hear. The precise, haughty line of her shoulders was shaking. Cantabella hadn't seemed to notice, but Phoenix's side of the night court collectively shuffled back in anticipation, and Phoenix might have done the same if Luke and Maya hadn't taken shelter behind him and the professor. He and Hershel pressed arm to arm, forming a wall between her and the kids. They listened to the rest of Cantabella's account with one eye on the Fire Lord Inquisitor.

"We were celebrating Avatar Day with a midnight bonfire." He spoke too steadily, a practiced calm. "When there was an... accident."

Eve's powderkeg went off hard.

"Accident? Accident?!" Eve screamed fire that lit the city up to the ceiling. "You weren't even there! You and Papa were both at some office party getting drunk on box wine and flirting with secretaries!"

The audience roared with scandal, crowding the rails to ogle the sight of Eve defaming Cantabella to his face. The entire witness stand flinched back from Eve, Kira and Espella hiding behind the taller Storyteller.

"You know that's not true, Eve-"

"Were you going to leave out the spirit water you trucked in and made us all drink?!"

"It was part of the trial-"

"And how that spirit water and that stupid bell work with each other?! Look well, Labyrinthia!" Eve jabbed an accusing finger, drawing a thin line of flame across the court that licked at the Storyteller's nose. "It was your precious Storyteller's 'dream project' that killed hundreds of people! Tell them, Arthur! Tell them how you let your underage, unattended daughter up into the Bell Tower! How ringing that forsaken bell knocked the entire town into a stupor, just like the Shades do with the silver bells in their sleeves!"

The ground under them shook with a low rumble, as if it were in tune with Eve's rage, and that made no sense at all. Phoenix braced himself.

"Tell them that every single person in that town, my mother, and your wife _burned alive_ because of _Espella Cantabella_!"

The town bucked up from below and cracked down the main street with a shock of cold air and a noise like lightning. Water and Shades bubbled up from beneath like a sliced vein, gushing out into the street and instantly flooding central Labyrinthia up to Phoenix's ankles. Everyone shrieked. Phoenix was sure he had himself, but he couldn't hear above the sudden din of the crowd and the curl of fire suddenly bending over his head. He faintly saw the bonfire guttering out and Eve lunging at the witness stand before they were all hit from behind by a wave of people leaping from the stands and running for the rooftops.

Phoenix didn't even realize he'd grabbed Maya until she was up on his shoulders. His mouth moved before his legs did. "Hershel what do we do?!"

"Move with the crowd and get to higher ground!" Layton's head snapped up as Luke jumped over the crowd and bounced to the roof of a tavern across the street. "There, follow Luke!"

"Following Luke!" Holding onto Maya's legs, Phoenix spun his whole body to make enough of an air ball to jump onto and launch the two of them into the air. His head swam at the sudden height and how quickly the "ground" approached, and at the last second he balked and twisted so he landed on his gut instead of his feet. Maya and Luke took an arm each and pulled him upright.

"Come on, Nick! We gotta go back for the professor!"

 _Oh jeez, I left him on the ground!_ Phoenix cut a path through the citizens still piling onto the roof, Maya and Luke following in his wake. They reached the ledge together, and Phoenix wondered for a moment if his jump was as impressive as it had felt. The ground didn't seem that far away. People were within arm's reach of him, and he started pulling them onto the roof with him. It took him just a second longer to realize that the water had just risen that fast that quickly, and he was pulling up people who were _swimming._ He dug in his feet and hauled up as many grabbing hands as he could until he was an acting ladder for all the non-swimmers of Labyrinthia. Little arms clamped around his waist on either side to hold him to the roof. His hands were reaching out and hitting water before Hershel took his wrist and pulled himself onto the roof by Phoenix's shoulder. He and the professor and the kids all landed in an exhausted pile with Phoenix at the base, trying to catch their breath and make a plan.

Labyrinthia groaned in pain. Fire painted the cave ceiling in orange light while a vein of spirit water split the ruddy red flood with streaks of electric blue. Eve, even with the flood going strong, still threw herself at Cantabella with murderous intent, while he ran and threw earth in her path to try and slow her down. Water still welled up where the city street had cracked, and before Phoenix's eyes, it began to bleed red flowers by the thousands. He could only just manage to pull Hershel to his feet in the thick crowd, and now the both of them were wet and covered with mud. At least the professor's hat was clean. Maya planted herself at Nick's side and did not move.

"What do we do now, Nick?!"

"What- why are you asking me?!" Phoenix gesticulated to the mass of people. "Like I have any experience in crowd control!"

"Maybe the professor knows something!" Luke pulled at the professor's arm. "Right?"

Hershel shook his head, hand at his temple. "I-I can't think! There must be an emergency exit for mass evacuations, but I have no idea where it could be!"

Hot air blasted the back of Phoenix's neck. Water surged and broke where a pillar of earth came up from below and blocked a direct column of fire that flared from other their heads.

An idea struck him hard, him and Hershel at the same time, and they shouted together, "They would know!"

Maya jolted. "They'd know what?!"

"Eve and Cantabella! They built the place!" Phoenix explained.

Layton followed up with, "They'd know where the exits are! We just need to stop them fighting long enough-"

That's when his ears were split by a fierce whistle. Phoenix bumped into what felt like seven other people as he turned to face the source of the noise. There before him, wet and dirty and fierce, was Patty.

"Boss!" Maya cheered. "You're alive!"

"Of course I'm alive! Can't go out saving people when you're dead!" Patty gestured behind her to her own little posse, a gaggle of Shades and Jean Greyerl. "I was freeing Jeanie from the jail when the flood broke out! Phoenix Wright!"

He reflexively stood at attention. "Y-yes ma'am!"

"Mr. Layton!"

Layton straightened up.

"I'm getting my people to higher ground if we have to _make_ higher ground, but that's not getting us out of this hellhole," Patty spoke firmly. "The only chance we have of getting out of here with no casualties is you getting those two's attention! So don't concern yourself with any of this, just get them to stop long enough to get us out!"

Phoenix turned to Hershel. "We can do that?"

The professor pulled his hat low and grinned. "Of course we can!"

That grin was enough. Phoenix took a deep breath. "Got it! Luke, Maya? Stay with Patty!"

Patty turned to Maya. "Maya and Luke, I'll need your help. Get ready: I'm about to teach you how to make a crowd of people listen to your every word."

Maya pulled her obi tight. "I'm SO ready!"

"And Luke, you'll be my eyes in the sky."

Luke saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

He didn't catch the rest of the instructions. Phoenix took Hershsel's hand and got them out on the edge of the roof. The streets were a lost cause now. The two of them had to jump roof to roof, opposing the traffic of Labyrinthians collecting around Patty, searching for a good vantage point to jump in to the fight.

"We're about to throw ourselves between a master earthbender and an angry master firebender..." Phoenix hoisted Hershel onto his shoulders. "If the flood doesn't kill us-"

A bolt of flame cut through the air, casting long shadows over the tops of the roofs.

Hershel hugged him from behind. "We are their only hope."

"What else is new?" With nothing more he could think to add, Phoenix reared back into a running start, and jumped.


	20. Labyrinthia Falls: The Story's End, 1

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

* * *

There was no time to think about what had been happening before. Phoenix threw them between an orange flare and a shadow, and he only had space to plant his feet and swing his arms out. Layton's energy met Darklaw's like lightning met the ground, a shock and a flare of sound and heat against his hands. He could feel his arms buckling from trying to catch the fireball just as a sweep of wind came from his side, following through where his elbows were giving way and arcing the fire away from him. It reared around them and whipped back at Darklaw, and Layton immediately placed that technique.

Darklaw staggered, momentarily blindsided. He could place them now. They were on a high building, he couldn't tell which one. The water level was just below them, with Darklaw before them on another rooftop and Cantabella standing behind them. His shoulders ached. His legs were shaking. He was certain he'd just barely escaped with his life.

The first thing that came to his mind came out of his mouth. "Phoenix!"

"I'm fine!" Phoenix answered for him. "Cantabella! We need you to-"

Phoenix's words stopped with an offended choking stutter, something that Layton had to turn to see. Cantabella has already turned his back to them, carefully bending the earth above them and pulling the ceiling of the cave down low. The sight sent a wave of disgust through his gut. "Cantabella! We need to get _out_!"

"No we don't! We just need to stop the water!" Cantabella locked the roof back into its dome shape, only to growl in frustration as it started to buckle upwards again. "I will start over! I'll learn from these mistakes and start again!"

"What- with the brainwashing?!" Phoenix wailed, completely flabbergasted. Layton couldn't find the words himself, but he hung onto the lawyer's every one. "With the brainwashing and the memory erasing?! Why?! Who benefits from this?"

Heat welled against the back of his neck, and he grabbed Phoenix's arm and pulled hard backwards. Nearly side swept by a flaming arch, Phoenix and Layton went on the defensive as Eve attacked them directly. She was almost close enough to physically land hits on them, so bathed in flames that she was nearly invisible among them. Phoenix whipped out of the way, circle walking out of her direct path, while Layton advanced and took what shots he could for her elbows and shoulders. It was almost fencing, something he knew better than firebending, and it was barely enough keep her at bay. Phoenix's circle walking was getting tighter and tighter though, and Layton felt his heel slipping into water in a few steps. They were being backed into the water.

"Eve, please!" Layton begged from behind Phoenix's guard. "The people need your help, or-"

"It's ALWAYS about someone else!" Eve's screams rattled his ears so close to his head. "It's about Arthur, or the people, or his career, or Espella! I won't be his pawn anymore!"

The next billowing wave of flames swept by them completely; Cantabella was bending away from the roof, making a dam for the water in his wake. Off in the distance of Labyrinthia, buildings were slowly rising out of the water, making for the ceiling, and Layton got one solid look before Eve was rushing after Cantabella to attack again. Layton and Phoenix pulled back to catch their breath, satisfied that the water wasn't rising anymore.

"Perhaps I underestimated the strength of her anger..." Layton admitted.

Phoenix panted. "We still haven't gotten the 'Get out of Labyrinthia free' card."

"The what?"

"The Big Truth!" Phoenix explained. "What me and Maya were talking about before you came here, that moment of 'a-ha!' that made us both get our memories back. It hasn't happened to Espella yet, and maybe if Espella-" He slapped his forehead at full force. "Gah, what am I saying? How is Espella learning the truth going to get us out of a cave?!"

Sometimes Phoenix's mind followed logic that he couldn't discern. But he found his own little thread of truth in the idea. Cantabella and Eve were deep in their own heads, trying to solve the problem of the cave flooding and the problem of... well, Arthur being alive, he allowed the morbid thought. Perhaps as outsiders, their words meant nothing. "Espella might be able to talk sense into them... Do you know where she is?"

Phoenix looked to him in something like despair. "I lost her when the flood started... I don't know if she was in the crowd, I would've seen her cloak and her hair."

"Where was the last place- no, we both saw her at night court, at the base of the-"

She couldn't have been. Their eyes met, matching in incredulous thoughts. Not again. They looked out to the Bell Tower, water nearly up to the belfry, and saw a little patch of green in the guardrails. Without another word, Phoenix hoisted Layton onto his back and got a running start. He had to aim for mostly submerged buildings for kick-off points, swirling water around his ankles at each launch, but he bounded them both over to the belfry where Espella cowered. She clung to the framework of the dragon guardrail, staring past it and into the red flower waves.

Layton slid off Phoenix's back, the impact of his feet on the wood sending bolts of pain up his legs. Phoenix kept them upright with a hand over his shoulder, his fingers quivering against him. "I'm not gonna be able to do that again, probably..."

"I won't ask you to..." he assented. "Espella? Are you there?"

"Where am I?" she answered. Her voice quivered, her whole body did. When Layton and Phoenix kneeled down beside her, her face was shadowed by a distant terror that didn't quite have her at full force.

"In the Bell Tower," Phoenix answered.

"I'm not supposed to be here," she told them. "Daddy said not to, unless he was here. But he's not here. We're here."

He and Phoenix shared a look. Neither of them were sure they wanted to continue, but if nothing else, Labyrinthia had taught them never to leave a stone unturned. Phoenix asked gently, "Who's we?"

"Me and... and the Fire Lord..." Espella ran her fingers over the grating. "The Fire Lord summoned this dragon."

With a wild flurry of action, Espella reared back her hand and slammed her open palm into the grating. She pounded it, over and over, leaving red marks across her hand. "This one! This one is in my dreams at night, this one dragon! And it's wrought-iron! It can't be the right dragon, but it's this dragon!" She curled against it, leaning her head against it. "I remember it so vividly, waking up in the Bell Tower and seeing the fire... but nothing else."

Phoenix's eyebrows tensed over his nose. He thought aloud. "You... woke up?"

"I remember."

Darklaw landed with a heavy crack, splintering the wood under her heels. She had forgone the bathing flames of her anger, her attention- and her fire- focused on a single white-hot point with Espella at the center. Even holding that pinpick of flame in her hand from across the belfry had Layton sweating. How her voice could be so cold while she radiated so much burning hatred boggled his mind. "I remember it all so well, the two of us up in this very tower. Just a bit of harmless fun while our fathers were away. You rang that bell and ruined everything. You fell into a catatonia and wouldn't eat. You wouldn't drink. Arthur fed you through a tube in your throat and you wouldn't so much as look at us."

Eve paced the belfry, eager to have her piece. "It was your father's idea to blame the whole thing on the big bad Fire Lord, because his grandfathers thought it was just _hilarious_ to blame everything wrong in the world on firebenders. So we needed a Fire Lord that he could go 'oh, look Espella, here she is, you didn't do anything wrong', and guess what firebender he had just handily lying around after a _death in the family_?"

"Eve, please..." Phoenix raised a hand up to her in surrender. "Whatever he did to you was wrong, but-"

"He _used me_ ," she hissed. "He's been using me ever since I was a child! As a babysitter for Espella, then as a role in his stories he had acted out for her to get her to talk again. Then he used me for administration, running this giant sham of a 'medical trial' so he could add more characters once she was old enough to ask questions. Cantabella uses people, he only cares about his own needs, and he'll lead the entire world to ruin because he cannot face the fact that his own daughter killed his wife and has been lied to about it for 10 years!"

Eve pointed out to the roof of the cave, coming down lower and lower even as the citizens were trying to bend their way up and out. "Even now he's trying to hang onto his perfect little dream world! He'll have every single one of you, you and your little children, drown in his own shame before he'd let Espella know the truth! She is a murderer! She killed my mother! And she-"

Phoenix gasped and staggered to his feet. "Eve, don't move. I need to ask you something very important."

Eve restrained herself, but just barely. "You're doing it on borrowed time, airbender."

Layton rose, at the ready to defend Phoenix if he had to. Phoenix spoke steady, though, and slowly, not threatening or moving forward. "The Shades have silver bells. Hearing it makes people who drank the spirit water fall asleep."

"Yes."

"Instantly?"

"Yes."

"Right where they stand?"

Layton understood. He understood _immediately_ , and he could faintly hear himself gasping for air. The sound shook Darklaw visibly, her anger faltering in a moment of confusion.

"Eve..." Phoenix asked, "Where were you? When you woke up?"

That question turned Espella's head. Eve froze, blinking first in surprise, then slowly tracing her eyes across the belfry floor. She measured her steps carefully. "She was... lying over there, not moving. I was here, and I ran to her to wake her up. Right here..."

Phoenix and Layton's eyes, and soon Eve and Espella's, fell on that great lever. A handle in a wheel, attached to the top of the bell-ringing mechanism. "I was... right here..."

The ground rumbled, shaking the tower, but there was no rush of water accompanying it. Cantabella stepped into the belfry from a bent column of earth, dread written all over his face. "... what have you told her?"

"What haven't you told her?" Layton countered. "What happened that day? The truth!"

He spoke it as if the words physically hurt him. "Eve and Espella snuck into the bell tower, just as she said. But... as far as Newton and I could figure, Eve rang the bell. She might have blocked out the memory of doing it. She might have leaned on the handle and not even realized... we don't know. But Espella was too far away to have done it... how could I tell her? How could I put all that weight on her little shoulders?"

"Because THIS-" Phoenix roared. "Is a better alternative?!"

"I did what I had to do!" Cantabella snapped back. "The truth was too painful! How could I let two little girls suffer so much from just an accident! I thought I could let Eve live in ignorance and convince Eve of her innocence eventually, just so long as I told the right story! They were fine until you and that detective and that man came in here and started asking questions and ruining everything, and- Espella?!"

Espella dashed past Cantabella. Layton's arms followed in slow motion, the weight of everyone's words and his own fatigue slowing his responses. Phoenix stumbled after him as Cantabella and Eve both ran after her, and leaning on each other's shoulders, then made their way out of the Bell Tower for one final time.

Espella had been eating, and staying quiet where they had been fighting, and had youth and a crazed determination on her side that sent her climing up roofs, jumping to the tops of houses and finally up to the highest point she could reach above the crack in the street. The water was no longer rising, possibly as a result of Cantabella's last-minute "repairs" and instead was swirling back into the underground in a dark, inky black vortex.

The sight struck a memory in Layton. He recognized her stance on that high ledge. He gripped at Phoenix's sleeve, gritting his teeth and trying to pull up a strength he just didn't have anymore. "We can't let her-"

Phoenix caught onto the implication. "Espella! Espella, please, don't move! We'll come get you!"

"Everyone- no!" Espella sobbed, speaking from the bottom of her lungs in a plaintive wail. "Eve! Eve I'm so sorry!"

Eve stopped in her tracks. Cantabella weakly started to bend stairs out to Espella's position, his age finally catching up with him. Espella didn't stop.

"I- I can't apologize enough! I didn't know!" Espella cried. "That's no excuse... I never wanted to know. I was so comfortable, and if Mr. Wright and Mr. Layton hadn't come and made me question things, I would have kept on doing nothing! You've suffered so much trying to help me, through your mother's death- oh Eve, and your father's! I've made your life miserable..." She wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. "And I can't... I've hurt so many people!"

"Espella, please! I'll treat you!" Cantabella pleaded. "I'll take those thoughts out of your head! You never need to think about that again!"

"It didn't work, Daddy!" Espella shouted. "It didn't work once, it didn't work again, it didn't work- ever! I just kept spinning those thoughts in my head, wondering if I knew the truth or if you were lying to me, just like you've been lying to everyone! I can't do this anymore! If I can't have the truth, I can't have forgiveness for what I've done, I can't even know what-"

Espella's footing gave way, and Layton's heart plummeted right along with her.

Something roared in his ears, rushing past him like a jet taking off. Twin streams of fire with Eve at its head flew out over the whirlpool, and with a whirling dive and a cheer from the Labyrinthian crowd, Eve caught Espella before she so much as brushed the surface of the water. Layton grinned and laughed as Phoenix clutched at him, his heart jumping back into his chest on a wave of joy. Hope shined yet!

Until the ceiling shifted again, dropping a glowing crystal directly into Eve's path with a sickening smack. The pair of them crashed like birds against a windowsill, the friction of their bodies pulling them to an uneasy rest on the downturned crystal shaft. They hung there, motionless and dangling over the still-swirling whirlpool.

Layton, for once, felt panic. There couldn't be an out for this, he was too tired and Cantabella was exhausted and Phoenix might have been an airbender but even master airbenders couldn't fly! His breath caught in his throat, death looming below for the two girls.

A crack opened in the ceiling, and in from above shining through a cloud of clay dust, came light.

"There!" He pointed. "There, Phoenix, look!"

"What- is that-?!" Phoenix nearly choked. "It is-!"

The compulsion struck them both. They moved as one body, raising their dominant hands and breathing in as it pulled their chests open and up. Their fingers slammed down, focused on that point, and they both shouted with a release of energy. Air fed fire, fire pulled in air, spiraling their combined points into a whirling precision blast.

It hit the crack in the ceiling, and the roof exploded into wide open sky.

The room filled with sunlight. The sky was so blue, streaked both with white clouds and the floating ephemeral bodies of spirits. The rough outline of Republic City bordered the edge of their vision, hiding behind a wall of cloudy ice holding back the waters of Yue Bay. The metalbender police yelped as they lost their footing, dropping the rest of the way down on grappling cables, and behind them came a team of airbenders on flying bison with blankets and water bottles. Eve and Espella were the first ones to be safely collected on the back of a bison carrying, with that shade of red hair, what had to be a plain-clothed Zacharias Barnham.

That was it. There was the outside. They were free.

Phoenix's arm fell over his shoulders in a heavy hug, and Layton wound his arm around Phoenix's broad chest to return it. They smiled at each other, the dark circles of their eyes more prominent in the dim light (or at least Layton was certain he had bags under his eyes, because how could he not?). Phoenix laughed, breathless and exhausted, and he did the same. They were free. Everything was over.

Everything was over.

He hadn't a clue what to say. Or rather how to say it. Or when, he was filthy and wet and he was thirsty.

"Wright?"

Phoenix cocked his head up. "Edgeworth?"

"Wright!" From one of the bison, flying down from the high ground, a man in maroon was waving to Phoenix. He wasn't the only passenger of the bison, and while Layton didn't recognize all of them he could certainly see Randall wrapping blankets around Luke and Maya along with a man in a green coat giving them bottles of water. "Good lord, what have you been doing down here?! You look like you've been on a deserted island for the past week!"

"We have been starting a revolution!" Phoenix cheered. He shook Hershel into his side, as if he were displaying him! "And on unpaid vacation time, too! What have you done this week, Edgeworth?!"

"I've been looking for you!" Edgeworth snapped back. "Do you know how much you've worried me! And now you have to fill out a police report! Get in the bison, Wr-"

Phoenix scooped him up, and Hershel was not ashamed to admit that he yelped. It was worth a yelp when Phoenix airbended them both onto the bison, and worth a laugh when "Edgeworth" responded to the sight with an odd "nrgyoh!" noise. The bison's airbender driver kicked up his horns, setting the bison a course out of the cave.

"I told you not to do that again," he mildly scolded. Phoenix sat down hard with Layton across his lap.

"No," Phoenix argued with a sly grin, "You said you'd never ask me to do that again. You didn't ask, I just wanted to do it for you."

"Hershel!" Randall leaned forward, eyes aglow. "Who is this?! He swept you right off your feet!"

"That..." Oh, what a good choice of words. His heart was fluttering, and damn the lawyer, Phoenix was still smiling at him with the world aglow in his eyes. Maybe it was being warmed by the sun again for the first time in days, maybe it was the relief. Or maybe it was something else entirely. "That he did."

Luke's eyes were on him conspiratorially. He knew it. Damn the words. He took Phoenix's face in one hand and pulled it to his mouth to kiss his cheek. "This is Phoenix Wright, and I think I might have fallen for him."

Phoenix caught him up by the nape of his neck and kissed him.

When they parted, they were high above the Republic City sky, out in the sun and the fresh air and on their way back to their own lives. Phoenix smiled at him, flushed and grinning and dirty and tired and the most handsome man on earth at the moment.

"I'm so glad it wasn't just me."

"That's the best line you had, Nick? You'll never make it in Hollywood."

Layton guffawed at the annoyed face Phoenix pulled. "Thank you, Maya," he complained, "For ruining the most romantic moment I've ever had in my life."

"I can assure you, Phoenix, there will be no shortage of opportunities in the future." Butterflies fluttered in his stomach at Phoenix's hopeful smile. "This isn't the end by any means. Simply a new beginning."

* * *

Note: An epilogue is required, but... wow. I think the story's done.


	21. Labyrinthia Falls: The Story's End, 2

The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: Thank you, everybody.

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Eve felt faintly awake. She was convinced she was dreaming of escaping Labyrinthia yet again, feeling the sun bearing down on her cheeks without the need to keep her eyes low or her wits about her. She couldn't be seen in public, not unless she wanted suspicion aroused about who she was and who she worked for. This was all another painful dream.

That wakefulness kept chasing her, though, and soon her eyes adjusted to full sunlight and Barnham hovering over her, holding her hand and watching her face. A healer pulled away from her, his hands wrapped in shining clean water. "She'll be all right. Took a hard crack to the head, but we'll watch her for complications."

"My lad- erm-" Barnham coughed. "I apologize, habit. I've learned what happened from Wright."

"What happened?" Eve sat up, feeling hot and stuffy in her long sleeves and gauntlet. Was she sitting on concrete? Were those clouds above her head? Where was she? "What did happen?"

"How far back to you remember?"

She retraced her thoughts. "The Storyteller was... I attacked him. Wright and Layton, they told me..."

She had been the one. Every memory that came back came with a wave of guilt that swallowed her ability to speak. She tried to steady her breathing and regain her words, but the weight of what she'd done, in the past and in the present- no, she was stronger than this, she could- she had been the one-

"Eve!" Espella filled her vision and pulled her into a hug. "It's okay, Eve, nothing bad can happen to you. You're here with me, and everything's fine."

"Espella..." Even after all of that, and knowing what she knew now, Espella was rushing to comfort her. Eve's eyes flooded, and she sobbed into Espella's dirty shoulder. She was ruined. All these years had turned her into a monster, a murderer since she was a little child and nearly a killer again, all because of her misbegotten search for the "truth". She dared not raise her head from the shame, and it started her sobbing hard enough to leave her lungs aching for air.

Espella never let go. Instead she turned her head to Barnham. "How did you find us?"

"I escaped into the bay by accident," he explained. "Mr. Edgeworth and Mr. Ascot found me, and once my memories had come back and the storm had stopped, I came with the police. The fire department bent a section of the bay out of the way and the metalbender force dug through the roof."

"Were we so deep underground?"

"You weren't!" Barnham's voice took on an odd pitch of panic. "Whenever we dug, something would pull the earth back into place!"

"... I think that might have been Daddy..." Espella took a moment to rub Eve's back. "Even at the very end, he was trying so hard to keep Labyrinthia... I guess he didn't want to lose it a second time."

When Espella looked up again, she spotted a familiar outline cutting its way to her through the crowd. The professor's tall top hat cut through the sea of people milling about the Air Temple grounds, followed by Mr. Wright's own shark-like hair. She thought about rising to meet them, but the thought of pulling away from Eve seemed so utterly terrible at that moment. She had known that paralyzing despair all too well. To deprive her of comfort in this horrible time... She stayed right where she was, wrapped around her dear friend.

Barnham stood for her, greeting the both of them with handshakes and a smile. "It's good to see you again." Maya and Luke pulled up the rear, and Barnham said with a grin. "Not dead."

Maya gave him an approving and exhausted "Aaaay!" as the "adults" spoke. Layton's eyes fell on Eve. "She's not taken the events well, I see..."

"I know how she feels." Espella gasped softly; Eve had pulled away just enough to look her in the eyes. All that sharpness and cold distance was gone, and her tear-streaked face mirror Espella's familiar sense of loss and confusion. "I know just how you feel, and I don't know how to help... I'm so sorry."

"You shouldn't help me..." Eve's voice was almost too hoarse to speak. "I tried to have you killed..."

Espella smiled shyly. "S-so did I... I'm rather alive still, thanks to you."

"Y-you are?" Eve swallowed. "How?"

Phoenix asked, confused, "She doesn't know?"

Layton explained, "Memory loss from the period just before a major head injury is fairly common."

Eve startled. "Head injury?"

"I think-" The healer, quiet in all their conversation, stood to his feet. "I need to take this case over from here. If you'll all come with me, I'll get you to a hospital and start treating your physical injuries. Maybe afterwards we can talk about what happened to the three of you. Do you have any immediately family I can speak to?"

There was the touchy subject of the hour. Espella hauled Eve to her feet and shook Layton and Wright's hands, and hugged Luke and Maya with her free arm. "Everyone... You've helped us so much. I owe you my life... I can't ask any more of you. I think from here, we'll be all right."

Luke pulled at Espella's skirt. "You call us as soon as you have a phone number, all right? I'd worry if you didn't."

Eve gave out one exhausted puff of a laugh. "Haven't used a phone in 10 years..."

Barnham hung near Espella and Eve even after the final round of goodbyes and well wishes and phone number exchanges. Wright and Layton his bunch melted back into the crowd at Edgeworth's behest. Espella was watching him, he knew it. He could feel her eyes on him. "Zacharias? Did you need something?"

"I- ahem-" Turning to face the two girls was almost like having amnesia himself. He wasn't the Inquisitor anymore. The "Storyteller" wasn't the ruler of his life, he was just some man and these were just two people about his age. He felt so much younger, so much more vulnerable, and it made his anxieties flare. "I had to make sure you-"

Espella took his hand. "Would you like to come with us to the hospital? A familiar face would be comforting."

How could she do that so easily? Barnham was stiff as a board and she was holding his hand like she'd known him her whole- oh. They had, hadn't they? Even if they hadn't known each other, as it were. He nodded, just as stiff as his back felt, and forced the words out of his mouth. "Yes."

Everything wound to a gentle stop as the Labyrinthians were collected, questioned, and released to wherever there was room to spare. Espella, Eve, and Zacharias found their way to a hospital along with Arthur Cantabella. Some stayed in the offered free lodgings of the Air Temple, and others found family they'd long since forgotten about. Phoenix and his bunch were some of the last in the crowd to leave, hanging close to Edgeworth and watching the last little bit of that part of their lives disappear little by little. It was all over. There was nothing left to do but get back in step with normal life.

Hershel's parents had sent a change of clothes or five along with Randall. Edgeworth had tracked down his and Maya's luggage from the ship. Luke's mother and father, and wasn't it weird to see them after all this time, came by personally with clothes for Luke and a set of questions so grilling and invasive it made the police interrogation seem tame. In a move that would cement him as Phoenix's friend for life, Randall swept them all off of Air Temple Island with a little misdirection and ushered them all to the hotel room he'd booked for them, no questions asked no people around, just so they could have room service and a night of sleep in a real, clean bed.

It could have been the bathroom of Phoenix's room on the ship for all her cared, because being freshly bathed and dressed in dryer-fresh warm clothes was more than enough to make him happy. The fact that they were his favorite pajamas just made it that much better.

Maya was happy in a more energetic sense. "EVERYTHING'S A BED!"

Luke through himself onto the couch, a little streak of blue oversized cotton shirt and wet hair. The couch obligingly unfolded into a bed. "The couch is a bed!"

"Couch beds are old news!" Maya plopped herself down in the window seat, half elegant in a long sweeping lavender nightgown and half childish from the lack of sleeves and the kittens embroidered into it. "The WINDOWS are beds!"

Luke launched himself into the closest chair, which reclined for him. "Chair's a bed!"

Maya eyed the far wall. "Fishtank's a bed-"

"No! No you do not!" Phoenix grabbed a remote and turned on the TV. "There! Watch TV and rot your brain! We have a week's worth of mysteries and puzzles to work off so we go back to being normal and not super-geniuses."

Luke and Maya flopped down on the couch bed, each with their own blanket. Luke pouted a bit. "I like being a super-genius."

"Niiiick, if we order food, will they bring it to our beds in our roomettes?" Maya asked. "Or will they serve it to us on the couch?"

Phoenix laughed. "They'll probably bring it to the door, just like regular room service."

He got distracted, though. The bathroom door slide open, and Hershel stepped out cleaned and dressed in fresh pajamas. Hershel's were an actual set of pajamas, too, matching top and properly fitting bottoms. His top hat had been left on his nightstand, and in the humidity of the shower and bath, his hair had curled. Phoenix shyly smiled, feeling a little inadequate in a white t-shirt and Silver Samurai brand gym shorts. "Wish I'd packed better sleepwear."

Hershel chuckled. "Oh yes, this relationship must come to an end right now, for your pyjamas don't match."

"You even say it all fancy."

Hershel blushed. "Phoenix Wright."

Phoenix Wright ran a hand through his hair. "Wow... I mean, what a week... I almost don't wanna believe that it happened, like this is one of those epic dreams that takes up a whole night."

"It's difficult, sometimes," the professor agreed. "Pulling away from those stories you've become so invested in."

"Yeah..." It reminded him of his clients, how he didn't always keep in touch but sometimes wondered if they were still doing okay. Or he had clients like Larry and Maya, repeatedly, where he knew exactly what they were up to most of the time. "Think Espella will come out of this okay?"

"With professional help? I believe she'll be all right." Hershel went to adjust his hat, only just remembering he wasn't wearing it. His hand went to the back of his neck instead. "Getting to know you in normal life will be... an adventure."

"I'm looking forward to every bit of it."

It was quiet. Phoenix and Hershel turned to check on the kids and found them both asleep, foreheads together on the couch bed.

"That looks comfortable..." Hershel chuckled. "I suppose they've gotten used to sleeping next to each other."

"Yeah, I'll be glad to sleep in a bed by myself again."

 _But... do I have to?_

He and Hershel shared a look, and his stomach fluttered. He'd kissed that man. It was a giddy and impulsive response to a high he was riding right out of Labyrinthia, but he hadn't regretted it and he hadn't gotten anymore teasing about it afterwards. Hershel had kissed him first, even. He'd assumed his butterflies were a one-way street right up until their dance in the Seal of Sages, but after that, they hadn't really had a chance to talk about it. They'd kisses, they'd landed, they'd taken count of everyone and then they'd all taken separate baths. What was there to say?

"Unless..." Phoenix offered. "You want to share the double bed in my roomette? I'm not ready to sleep yet, but I'd be happy to talk."

Hershel nodded. "With so much to talk about? Please, lead the way."

Phoenix felt like he was glowing when the professor took his hand. Labyrinthia might be long gone, and he might not ever see Espella or Eve or Barnham ever again, but he wasn't about to let Hershel and Luke slip out of his life. They made an unbeatable team, after all.


End file.
